A YEAR OF RETIREMENT

 In early 2024, when I decided it would be my retirement year, I wrote this post on Jubilación, the Spanish word for retirement. Today, October 9, is a year since I retired, and perhaps it is time to reflect on the past year and what retirement life has been so far.

If you search online for how to thrive in retirement, you will most likely come across advice to focus on: Health, Purpose, Social Connections, Routines, Adaptability etc. While previously a lot of the retirement planning advice seemed to centre on planning your finances strategically, these days, given our longer life expectancies, retirement is no longer what it used to be.

I’ve heard it said retirees broadly fall into two categories: a) those who want an easy, comfortable retirement and b) those who want their retirement life to be a period of growth and exploring. I want to be one of the latter and I’d like to think I am, but let’s take stock.

Creative Pursuits: I’ve ‘graduated’ (if you can call it that) from acrylic painting to watercolours, taken a couple of in-person sessions at the local community centre, and have another one coming up in November. I’m having so much fun painting it’s hard to imagine my life without it, difficult to recall a time (only a few short years ago) when I would never have put ‘Pearl’ and ‘paint brush’ in the same sentence. And yet, here I am, always on the lookout for art festivals and fairs, following artists on Instagram, watching You-Tube videos, waking up some mornings thinking – I want to paint today!

I’m also, of course, still writing, still meeting up with my two writing groups regularly, still working on a couple of novels, editing, revising, sending out a few queries (and inevitably feeling discouraged), constantly re-thinking and re-evaluating this whole writing process.

Learning: While I’m still trying to learn Spanish (albeit very slowly), I want to do some other type of ‘thinking’ learning (as opposed to ‘creative’ learning). I believe strongly in staying curious in retirement, trying new things, flexing the mind (and also the body). While I try to take a few writing classes during the year, I’m looking for other types of learning, although I’m not sure exactly what.

When I search local classes intended for ‘mature’ students, many seem to focus on learning simple technology or how to invest your money to make it last. The assumption is (an ageist stereotype) that the older generation doesn’t know their way around technology (not true!) or that we’re only interested in easing into a comfortable retirement. My career was in IT, so I’m not about to sign up for classes on how to use an Excel spreadsheet!

Travel: Only one trip this year (to Amsterdam), two in total since I’ve retired (Portugal was the other). When and where will the next one be? Who knows, but I have travel constantly percolating in the back of my mind. While I like some comforts when I travel (no tent for me, thank you), I do not need luxury or extravagances. In the past few years I’ve preferred wandering solo, but now I’m thinking – why not try a group excursion of some kind, why not step out of my comfort zone?

Portugal - Nov. 2024

Reading: “Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.” - Jane Smiley. I’m one of those people too and books are an essential part of my retired life.

Blogging: My blogging has slowed down in the past year but I’ve been talking with other bloggers and am eager to tap into and connect more with this online community.

Physical Activity and Health: They say ‘motion is lotion’ and I’m a believer. Some kind of physical activity is part of my daily routine. Tennis and Pickleball continue to dominate, along with walking, but, in the interests of my bone density, I also spend some time in the gym lifting weights. There’s a lot of research showing the importance of lifting weights as we age, along with working on balance. Yes, we want longevity, but we want quality of life to go with it. I am happy to report I’ve managed to increase my bone density in the past year and a half.

Social Life & Connections: If you’ve read my previous posts, you’ll know I’m now the condo book club organizer! Our first meeting in September was a great success (we discussed Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng) and there is a lot of interest in keeping this group going.  All retirement advice includes fostering social connections. I’m a loner by nature and have a much lesser need for socializing than the average person, but I do enjoy social interactions and events where the conversations run deeper and we discuss ideas (as opposed to things).

So…have I adapted to retirement?: I have slipped into this stage of life so easily it’s as if it was waiting for me, and once I nudged the door open, it embraced me fully. Granted, I laid the ground work three years prior to retiring by working three days a week and devoting the other four days to pursing my other interests. If you can do it this way, I would highly recommend it, as they say you should have something to ‘retire to’ rather than ‘retire from’.

Home office - Oct 9 2024

However, it’s not all rainbows and roses, given what is happening in the world and given the realities of the aging body. There are things I must accept about my body which is not always easy to do. I’m also one of those people who will choose comfort over style every single day. I’ll never again squeeze my feet into narrow high heels or into ridiculous body garments, and will never be one of those glamorous aging women who epitomize the phrase ‘age is just a number’ or other such sound bites which I find more annoying than uplifting.

I do however strongly believe that this stage in life has numerous gifts and opportunities, freedoms and choices, and the flexibility to structure your days as you wish. Many dream of the day they will retire and be free of schedules, commuting, bosses, deadlines, commitments. I wasn’t one of those people wishing into the future to land in retirement, mostly because I enjoyed my work and because ‘retirement’ meant ‘old’ and I (naively) never saw myself as ‘old’.

But here I am retired and ‘young-old’. No one tells you that as you age, the gap widens between your biological age and the age you feel inside. But it is within this gap you can quietly fill yourself with the freedoms aging affords. It is within this gap you can step into yourself.

Netherlands - May 2025