The Right Choice

The decision to retire was made 4 years before I actually retired.  During those 4 Pre-Retirement years, I had doubts, sadness, second thoughts and plenty of feelings of loss.  I do believe those feelings were completely normal.  I started teaching right out of college.  With just a few years into my teaching career, I took on a leadership role with my local Teachers' Association as well.  That and many other leadership roles led to a 9 year stint as the local President.  Throughout my career I had successfully raised two wonderful children while continuing my teaching, my leadership roles and earning my Masters' Degree plus.  At home, I did all of the laundry, cleaning, vacation planning, most of the cooking, and even a lot of the yard work.  My days were full of professional responsibilities, meetings, running the kids to and from activities and hosting plenty of family gatherings on weekends.  I had created a professional life for myself with dozens of colleagues and work friends.  I had also created a stable domestic life for our family.  I had become the perfect image of a Supermom and I didn't know a life without a crazy and busy schedule.

Before retirement, my husband and I had not been empty nesters for too long.  Although my oldest child has been on her own for 6 years, my youngest has only been gone for two years.  I never really had the opportunity to settle into the empty nester life before transitioning into my retirement life.  After I made the decision to retire, it all started to sink in that my life was going to change dramatically - good or bad.  I had plenty of teary moments when my family and friends asked me what I was going to do when I retired.  These teary moments weren't caused so much by my inability to answer the question as they were by the stress caused by this impending major life change.  I decided to put my faith in God that this was the right decision and that He would direct me to where I needed to be - hence the "no plan" plan.  Every time someone would ask me what my retirement plans were, my response was, "Wherever God takes me."  I'm sure this sounded like a "no answer" answer to many people.  Of course I'm not saying that my life is 100% in God's hands and I am going to wake up every morning just "flapping in the wind" until He tells me what He wants me to do for the day.  That's definitely not how I roll.  My plan is to create my schedule with the things I love or am interested in (my Top 10 List) and to make sure it is flexible enough that it can be changed for a bigger cause.

My husband and I recently received some wonderful news that makes me feel that my choice is the right one for me and that the timing for my retirement is on target.  My daughter and son-in-law AND my daughter-in-law and son are both expecting.  In other words, both my babies are having babies! Being a wonderful grandmother X 2 will be added to the top of my Top 10 List!  It's time to slow down, stop and smell the roses, and enjoy the people I love.  So - that's the plan.  Retirement was 100% the Right Choice!