Wednesday Ramble

 After a lifetime of working, raising families, and contributing to the success of this nation in countless other ways, senior citizens deserve to retire with dignity.

 
Charlie Gonzalez

 

Yesterday I received an email from a friend I had made on my old Yahoo group.  She wanted to tell me she had finally done it....retired....and asked how I was making out.  I told her I was still working and planned to work until full retirement age so as not to lose any benefits.  I'm also eligible for a pension from my other job, but only after I reach full retirement age, thinking it was 67. "But, isn't your birthday next month?" She asked.  "Yes", I responded, "but I will only be 66.  I still have a year to go."  Well, it turns out that I was wrong.  Because of my year of birth, I will be eligible to retire with 'FULL BENEFITS' next month when I reach my 66th birthday.  I am speechless.  Speechless because I had thought I was going to be forced to work another year to get all my benefits...and speechless because I can't believe I have reached the retirement age.  Where has the time gone?

It seems like only yesterday I walked into my first job...a tiny restaurant in my old neighborhood.  I was barely 16, and I turned out to be a terrible waitress.  I was always forgetting who got what and without fail, I'd end up holding an extra hamburger after the lunch run.   As terrible as I was, the man didn't fire me because I was a neighborhood kid trying to do the right thing.   Years later, when I worked in catering to put myself through school, I did so much better because everybody got the same thing.

So, how am I feeling now?  Well, I think it only natural that I feel kind of sad.  What has been a huge part of my life has almost ended.  I'll be 66, and I have worked since age 16.  That is 50 years of my life I will be saying good-bye to.  But, the other part of me is feeling so exhilarated.  I will finally be free.  My time will be MY time. I will be able get up and go to bed whenever I please because there will be no alarm clock to go off bright and early in the morning.  And if I feel like rocking in my chair all day and reading a book, I can choose to do so without feeling guilty about taking a day off. More importantly, I will no longer have to deal with those dreadful subways on a daily basis suffer from depression because I am overworked at my job and see no way out. It feels good to know that I can walk in there next month and hand in my resignation letter rather than feel trapped as I have been.

Of course, there is no way I am going to do that.  Those were the kind of things I did in my youth.  I thought nothing of quitting a job because I knew there was always going to be something else out there waiting for me.  Well, that's not true anymore.  Who's going to hire a 66 year old woman who walks with a cane?  Besides, I don't have it in me to start over now. So, before I hand in my letter, there is so much planning to do.   must have an income and medical insurance in place. Any tips from retirees will be greatly appreciated. 

All in all I am feeling good right now.  That hopeless feeling is gone, and I feel as if a 500 pound weight has been lifted from my shoulders. It hasn't been easy on me traipsing back and forth to work with my cane, in pain, and not seeing any way out for another year.  Yes, it will be sad to say good-bye, but it is something we all have to face one day, and if I fill my days with things I enjoy, I won't miss it as much.  There IS life after work.

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.  

J. Lubbock