Advice for someone newly retired..

I got an iPhone and learned how to use waterlogue app

I just received an email asking, "What was life like for you the FIRST year you retired? What ADVICE would you give to someone newly retired  this year (as of Sept 2015)?" 

I thought great, this is going to inspire me to write a blog post, but I missed the part that you were supposed to answer these two questions with a maximum of five sentences!  

I actually have written quite a bit about what being retired was like that first year in this blog.  Someone told me when I was first retired, that the first year was wonderful, then I asked what the second year was like, and she said even better.  And you know I think that is actually true.

I think people do worry about what retirement might be like and of course, we are used to summers off so it doesn't really hit until September.  And I must admit I went to the retired teachers luncheon that first day of school the first year,  and kind of thought, "I am not ready for this and I don't want to deliver poinsettias at Christmas to the retired teachers over 85"  not very charitable I know.  I preferred to volunteer two mornings a week at my old school mainly with grade ones and I even coached soccer and basketball that first year.  Another morning I read to kindergarten students for half an hour at the beginning of the day.  I think I was afraid of empty time.  I took Spanish lessons, I went on long walks etc.  And strangely for me, retirement wasn't as difficult as I once had feared, and honestly kind of liberating in that I could do exactly what I wanted to do when I wanted to.

water colour lessons

I got to go on trips at less busy times and be away as long as I wanted.  I had time to reconnect with old friends.  I got to relearn how to knit and take watercolour lessons.  I had time to be a tourist in my own city.  I was able to pursue many interests. I got to be outside! And if I felt like it, I could just wander the beach when hardly anyone was there. And it was still important to feel that I was still making the world a better place by volunteering in different ways.    As teachers we have the beauty of really never having to question whether what we do is useful or important.  We know it is.  So I still need to feel that being retired.

So let's try to do those five sentences.  

"For me, life was really good my first year of being retired.  I loved teaching but I loved the freedom of retirement.  For me some structure was good but I didn't want too much.  I would advise you to find out what you really enjoy doing and what  you might want  to learn more about or have more time to do.  Be fearless and have fun!!!"