As my young adult children take their first steps into the grown-up world, I find myself, more and more, thinking about retirement. True, I've got 10 years before I can take full benefits (and my husband several years more), but it certainly feels like the next thing. And while wedding and baby showers could sneak into that timeline, those are events for my children to star in. My lead roles there have past. If living nearly 60 decades has taught me anything it's this: You can make all the plans you want, but you better be flexible because it's highly unlikely they'll all come off as expected. I never imagined I'd move to rural Colorado in my 40s nor did I see that jaunt leading me to Illinois. Yet here I sit, facing the last stretch of my career before taking off into the great golden beyond. Will I follow my children? My parents had all three kids move away, me with their precious grandchildren in tow. So I don't know if that's a good strategy. Lately I've been thinking of finding a place the kids would want to visit. Then spending a couple months - perhaps in the hottest or coldest season - living somewhere else, changing the location every year. After recently inheriting a little camper my mind has wandered to RVing through at least the early years of retirement, seeing all the North American places I've yet seen. I read articles about the favorite international locales of retired expats. But I don't think I could spend all my time in a foreign country. It's a bit uncomfortable, this place. Being able to see that future just breaking the horizon, but not close enough to recognize. For an adventurous spirit, but one who wants to know what the adventure is, it's disconcerting. I guess I'll just continue to dream. As getting older proves to everyone, I think, the future will be here before I know it.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
d.a.meek
Young at heart. Archives
December 2017
Categories |