Retirement has been fantastic so far. Here is a list of the good points I've compiled to date:
1. I love NOT working. I liked my job as a librarian for the Brooklyn Public Library, and there were parts of it that felt satisfying and rewarding. I especially liked the beginning years, as that's when I was doing real librarian work. I always did my best...always! I tried to make a difference, and I went "above and beyond" most of the time. I worked hard and earned my promotions and rewards along the way. But I was never married to my job. It never defined who I was. I never let it become my whole life. I was always ready to come home at the end of my shift, and I was always ready for my two days off at the end of my work week. I looked forward to my vacation time even though you wouldn't always know it for as much as I would check my work emails when not officially on BPL time (once I becme a supervisor/manager).
But NOT working is amazing. No more keeping someone else's schedule, no more worrying about work obligations and feeling stressed over my responsibilities. No more worrying about what was happening when I wasn't there. For the most part, I can now do what I want to do, when I want to do it. And there's a lot I want to do!
2. Retirement has NOT left us poverty-stricken, for as much as we worried about our lack of savings. Sure, our income has been quite reduced, but so have our expenses. (Please *NOTE* that we could never have retired and stayed in NYC!) But here, in western NY, we have no mortgage (and really no housing costs at this time), and our dollars stretch farther. My NYS pension and Bob's Social Security generally cover all our current expenses.
NOTE: I am so grateful I had a city job that provides a pension!
3. I have time for my passions! I'm doing them all: photography, nature walks (and drives), gardening, quilting, cooking and biking. I've painted and reorganized the upstairs at my Dad's house into a cozy apartment for us. I've also cleaned out and reorganized his kitchen and back porch (both of which I am using too)! I've been baking and cooking, trying many new recipes that are generally well received by my two appreciative guys here. I've built my own photography website online. I've dug sod and dirt to make several garden beds. I've started a vegetable garden from seed. I'm learning how to can, and have successfully made pickles. I've made two quilts on my own, and greatly enjoy a weekly quilting group at my Dad's church. We've taken full day trips and shorter trips into the surrounding area, north, south, east and west, enjoying the beauty and discovering new things about this region we live in. We also try to walk or ride our bikes every day on our much-loved Allegheny River Valley Trail. I am rarely (if ever)"bored", there is always something to do. I've heard people who retire say: "I'm so busy in retirement, I don't know how I ever found time to work before"! I can confirm that this is totally TRUE!
4. I've let go of a lot of anger! I never realized how much bottled up anger and resentment I had inside until I moved up here, and suddenly I didn't have it anymore. Most of it was anger at things I had no control over ... things like traffic, and crowds and waiting, and having to deal with difficult people (both on the job and off), rudeness and general bad attitude! A large part of it was because so much of my job was about things that I really was not good at and totally didn't want to deal with (mostly managing people). Now that those things are, for the most part, no longer part of my life, I feel like a different person ... happier and more relaxed. Most enlightening , and liberating!
5. I have re-thunk my priorities. I love traveling; it's one of my passions. And there is still so much more of this beautiful world that I want to see. But since we have settled here, my intense desire to travel has become less urgent. I'm not exactly sure why that is, a combination of things I am sure. I think part of it is that I am finally out of the city (and I never realized how much I wanted/needed to leave NYC until I left). Part of it is also that retirement still feels like a never-ending mini vacation (yay)! And part of it is that some of my previous need to travel was a bit like trying on new clothes, but in my case, I was trying on new possible locations for retirement. But what I discovered was that, what I really wanted to do, was get out of NYC! Now that I'm here, I am - to my own great surprise - happier and more content than I have been in years and years. Never in a million years would I have thought that would happen. Throughout most of my adult life, I never wanted to return here to my hometown for any extended period of time.
But here I am, and here I have access and time and space for the things I am passionate about. I have especially been enjoying getting reacquainted with the community and with my family here. My brother is a super guy, and his family is amazing, and it's been wonderful being able to spend this time so intimately with my Dad! I look forward to each and every day!
I also know, that despite the longer and colder winters here, that I LOVE the changing of the seasons and would never want to live in a place that didn't have all 4! (in the south, for example). A little less winter would be nice, but I would never want "no winter at all"!
6. I like not having to "dress". I used to love the now defunct show What Not to Wear, because the transformations were usually nothing short of amazing. But at heart I am the "before" girl. I am at my most comfortable in jeans and sweats. I haven't worn a skirt in over a year, and haven't even worn "dressy slacks" since I've been here. I've also pretty much stopped wearing makeup. My skin feels better and I'm getting used to my naked face and a more natural me. When I go out somewhere I will often still put on a little mascara and lipstick, but for everyday I never put on makeup and I have found it to be very liberating.
I still have a passion for shoes, though, but it's starting to wane. And while I still buy new clothes, they're now far more practical - jeans, turtlenecks, fleece and sweats. I really am a country girl at heart and feel best in my more natural state.
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