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Now that you are away from the grind, how have you become more you?
Not having retired yet, I see myself doing what I have always wanted to do but haven't had the time for. For instance saving sea turtles and counting the bat population. Maybe becoming a beekeeper.
Has anyone been able to realize their childhood dream in retirement?
When I was growing up in the 40s and 50s there were four things most little boys wanted to grow up to be - cowboys, police, soldiers or firemen. During my checkered careers I managed to achieve three of the four. Thereafter my dream was to be retired and, voila, here I am. Mission(s) accomplished!
When I was growing up in the 40s and 50s there were four things most little boys wanted to grow up to be - cowboys, police, soldiers or firemen. During my checkered careers I managed to achieve three of the four. Thereafter my dream was to be retired and, voila, here I am. Mission(s) accomplished!
When I was growing up in the 40s and 50s there were four things most little boys wanted to grow up to be - cowboys, police, soldiers or firemen. During my checkered careers I managed to achieve three of the four. Thereafter my dream was to be retired and, voila, here I am. Mission(s) accomplished!
Which of those three professions were you engaged in?
Maybe it's a cliche, but my ambition has been to become an artist in my retirement. I've started by taking drawing and photography classes at the community college, I'll be moving on to painting in the Fall. I've done some beautiful work, if I may say so myself, and it brings me joy.
Has anyone been able to realize their childhood dream in retirement?
Not so much in retirement as in a career. As a child, when visiting my grandparents, I used to sit and read my grandfather's many conservation and firearms magazines. He was a Texas gunsmith. I used to read the magazine ads from several correspondence schools that asked something like "would you like to work in the field of wildlife conservation?" I credit those magazine ads for setting my eventual career path. Now retired from wildlife sciences, I find that I did what I set out to do as a child.
I wonder now if anyone has ever gotten a job in wildlife conservation through a correspondence school? I now realize that I was extremely lucky to break into a field that has always had a lot more applicants than jobs.
Anyway, I'm not blossoming anymore. I'm just enjoying my spare time.
Retirement is not the " wonderful goal" I thought it would be. The last 6 years have been less than happy times. Being self employed all my life, I have done most everything and more several times. That was when I was NOT retired. Things change, we have to give up so much of what we worked for, the remains of the day finally caught up to me, and now that I am old, its impossible to recover.( lack of discretionary income ). Also you can loose a lot of your independence that was so important when you were working.
Maybe I just had too high of expectations when I was looking forward to those retirement years when all the fun stuff could be enjoyed even more, like hobbies, social relationships, little if any money problems. The bottom line, retirement sucks !
Has anyone been able to realize their childhood dream in retirement?
Emphatically YES!
As a child, I grew up on the very low end of the blue collar socioeconomic spectrum in a boondock little town in Pennsylvania. It wasn't a "fun" existence and there was no money for travel and related experiences.
I was (still am) an avid reader and my childhood fascination and intellectual salvation was reading about different cultures, places and especially, ancient history.
Since retiring in 2007, I'm traveling the world several times each year and actually visiting the places and cultures of my early fascination(s). Its a blast!!!
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