DEFINING RETIREMENT

“Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!”
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

What does it mean to be retired, relevant, and refreshed?

 

To begin this exploration into life as a retired woman I decided I wanted to explore the concerns, fears, and benefits we retired women experience.

Being retired does not mean I want to fade away into the sunset. I want to remain RELEVANT and I want to feel REFRESHED. 

I hopped onto Meriam Webster and looked up the definitions for retired, relevant, and refreshed.  Here is what I learned.

Retired: withdrawn from one’s position or occupation: having concluded one’s working or professional career.  This definition is rather depressing. Maybe I can find a synonym for retirement that will do better.

Here is what I found;

• cloistered, covert, hidden, isolated, quiet, remote, secluded, secret, sheltered

 

Certainly, retirement can be isolating, secluded, and sheltered but when I was daydreaming about what my retirement would look like those words did not match what my mind’s eye was seeing.

I envisioned myself as being alive and vibrant and fun-loving. The word RELEVANT popped up so I looked up the definition for Relevant:

Here is what Miriam Webster had to offer

Definition of relevant: having social relevance

Relevance: relation to the matter at hand

This definition is rather vague so again I looked for Synonyms

•  applicability, bearing, connection, materiality, pertinence, relevancy

CONNECTION, yes I want to be connected to people and the world around me,

PERTINENT,   yes, I want to be to the point and fitting,

To be USEFUL as in APPLICABLE, yes absolutely.

Okay, now I am getting someplace. One more definition to explore.

What does it mean to be REFRESHED?

To restore strength and animation, to revive, to renovate, freshen up, stimulate to update or renew by sending a new message

YES! This is what I want retirement to be!!!

Restore, Strength YES

Revive, Yes

Stimulate, Yes

Update and Renew, Yes  (If I only had a refresh button instead of a belly button  that I could push )

Now my journey begins exploring the life of a retiree. Some days I will be quiet some days I may be isolated and some days I may be secluded.  That’s okay. Staying relevant, connected, and pertinent may take some creativity and a change in my mindset.  Pushing my refresh button will enable me to enjoy life from a new perspective.  I will have the time to renovate my thoughts and restore my sense of self and get to know ME.  I am going to enjoy learning how to do all these things.  Unfortunately, I do not have a magic wand or a fairy godmother to instantly reinvent myself, so I get to research new things, learn new skills, meet new people, go new places.

To quote a wise ole author

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…”
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!