Time is flying by even faster now
Time flies when you’re having fun.
It seems as if it were just New Year’s Eve, then I blinked and it is nearly Labor Day. What is mind-blowing is that tomorrow will mark one whole year since I retired. (I still write this column, but it’s so much fun that I really don’t consider it work.)
Where has the time gone? Big transitions in life often involve time, planning, worry and stress. We started the process of downsizing from house to condo several months before I retired, so sorting through belongings and getting everything moved and cleared out made the calendar move quickly. Once I finished work, we were on the move going to fun sporting events throughout last fall along with packing up the moving van and relocating to our new place. Then came unpacking, organizing and trying to get situated. Next came all of the other stuff that goes along with moving: changing our address, our driver’s licenses and car registration and getting new car insurance.
The final bit of making everything feel like home (and this happened every time I moved to a new place) was putting our pictures up on the wall. Once that’s done, you are home.
We spent a few months out of the country over the winter and even though they were relaxing and very enjoyable, I still felt like they went way too fast. Next thing you know, I’m back home and doing the final bit of moving to a new area: Finding a hair salon, getting a new doctor and a checkup along with a new dentist and teeth cleaning. Now I look at the date and it’s already the end of August. How?
When I retired, people kept asking me, “How are you going to keep busy and what will you do all day?” I feel like I haven’t slowed down at all in the past year and there’s always something to do. Now that the logistics of the big transition to a new address are done, I am finally starting to relax.
I guess the big question is whether I miss work. The answer is an emphatic no. Not one iota. Yes, I loved doing the weather and reporting the news, and I did it for nearly four decades. I loved my work, and it’s not that I wanted to change and do something else. I just didn’t want to work anymore doing anything at all. One year later, that hasn’t changed.
I had colleagues who feared retiring and didn’t know what they would do without work. Now, they’re the happiest they’ve ever been. I always knew that would be the case for me. I worked extremely hard and am very blessed and grateful that I was able to retire.
To anyone afraid of the next chapter or wondering what they’ll do in retirement, trust me: You’ll wonder how you ever had time to work!
Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.