What I don’t like about being retired

Topic of this blog…The things I do NOT like about being retired.

#1 Aging

I do not like aging one bit.

Yes, I do love being retired, having just about no pressure on me, not having a schedule I have to keep, not having major responsibilities, having my freedom, not having to attend a meeting, doing whatever I like and not having to run my writing by someone in Communications. I love having more time to spend with my wife, relatives and friends. I love retirement. I just don’t like the fact that I am getting to be an old guy.

As I write this, I am just about 70 years of age. My vision is not crystal clear like it use to be (and I heard the words “Beginnings of a cataract” during my last exam). My hearing was never any good and is now pretty much awful. I look like a salmon that has swum well upstream. My teeth are in the middle of an expensive repair job. My skin looks like the skin on the people I use to look at and say “Oh my God, what the heck happened to him?” My strength and stamina…headed south. My memory…well, I go through life with one thing lost at all times and my good friends know me well enough to cut me off when I start into the same story for the third or fourth time. I seem to have one thing wrong with me and one thing injured at all times. And that is not the worst part of aging…

The worst part is the rapidly increasing loss of friends, relatives, idols, mentors, neighbors and roll models due to this thing called…death. Some days I look on Facebook or at my emails and find that I have lost several people from my life during just the last 24 hours. And, you don’t just lose them, you also lose those things that only they knew about you. So, you really do lose a part of you. And the loss of these loved one…it hurts.

#2 There is no number two

Thus concludes my rant on the things I do NOT like about being retired.

The common things I hear are concerns from those retired or about to be retired is not having enough money and being bored. Both of those are easily fixed. Figure out something to make some money and do it…and if you pick something you love to do, you won’t be bored.

Remember, your retirement is in your hands. You are the CEO of you. You may think that you can fight aging, but in the end…it is a bitch. But you can change just about anything else in your life. Take a moment and think about what IS possible and then go about taking the steps to make yourself happy. You deserve it. You worked a lifetime to get to this stage. Life is good.

Aloha,

Don Hurzeler