Month: August 2018

Welcome!

Since my retirement is coming up just around the bend, I have been spending even more time thinking about what my first retirement week will really look like. I am so excited to make it really mine!

We live in a rural area and have lovely walking opportunities even within our neighborhood of houses that are rather spread apart…including some animals to look at along the way. As I have worked through the years, I have often, I confess, felt rather jealous when I saw women out early, walking either with friends or by themselves, just enjoying themselves. I have wistfully wished I could have time to do that, and not have to be rushing off to work. SO, while it isn’t exactly the most amazing, stimulating, retirement activity for my first retirement “former” work day, I intend to go walking with my husband with our crazy dog, and just enjoy the neighborhood and the freedom!

Then, back home, perhaps off to a local coffee shop in our small nearby town, linger over a book and a coffee or green tea latte, then have a leisurely rest of the day at home!

Sound exciting? LOL! I think it does, because I just want that first day especially to represent my new found freedom and new sunRISE! The rest of the week will probably have more to it…a Tuesday women’s Bible Study; writing more blog posts; begin fitness training with my husband who I have asked to be my trainer (since one of my major goals is to get into better health and fitness); working out a routine with him of jointly cooking meals; hopefully trying new recipes (though Dave has done a GREAT job over this first year of his retirement of cooking dinners most weekday evenings and trying new and very tasty dishes!); and making a specific implementation plan for the ideas on my notebook list that we discussed in the beginning of this blog. (See May and June blogs if you haven’t heard about notebook lists! Good stuff!)

We have bigger plans for here and there down the road, including family time, planned travel, spontaneous day trips, classes, involvement at our church, etc., but I am excited that my first week will be one of quiet appreciation for the blessing of this new phase of my life!

Talk to you again soon!

Mary

Hello everyone! I hope you are planning for wonderful sunRISES every day!

As you know by now, my time left at my job is definitely winding down. 7 more weeks to go! This is getting real, and I am SO excited!

At my work, we hopefully are homing in on hiring someone, so that is good and hopefully that will all take shape very soon. I am working hard on things that need to be wrapped up before I leave. I have communicated my retirement to a few customers who specifically need to know because of my relationship with them. I have started to box up some personal stuff and take it home…and I have started to recycle some old files that won’t be needed (and truth be told, I should have gotten rid of a while back…but I am a piler, and filing/paper clean up is not first on my priority list! Sigh…! Something I hope to do better once I am home!). My packing up has made my co-workers nervous and sad, however, so I don’t want to do too much that is totally obvious till it is almost time! They are all very sweet through this process with me, so I am very blessed by that!

Now THAT is all getting DEFINITELY real! LOL!

One other thing that is getting real is fully realizing that soon, I won’t be seeing/interacting with the people I work with every day anymore. I am realizing that is the part I will miss…because I truly consider some of those folks to be my friends, and we have all personally grown through working together. I will try to stay in touch with some of them, most definitely, but I know that the reality, in most instances, is that those contacts will become fewer and fewer as we all move on with our lives in each of our new “normals.”

This realization makes me a bit sad, and I know that is going to be what causes my last month or so to be more teary than it has been up to now. But, as we have talked about before, all of life changes have both positive and negative effects; but the positive ones I fully expect to be the greater side of that equation, since all of life is what WE make it, through the blessings of the Lord…so, onward toward my newest upcoming sunRISE!

Talk to you again soon!

Mary

Welcome back…hope you are well!

Last time I talked about training my replacement and other practicalities. Today, I thought I would cover some of my changing emotions over this past 5 months back at work.

My excitement is really growing, and that is my overarching emotion at the moment. I still must be, and am, very engaged in doing my job, but that light that is getting brighter beckons strongly! As of date of this posting, only 2 more months to go!

However, as I have also been informing the broad group of folks I work for throughout my company, I have occasional unexpected tears when talking about it. I know that will increase toward my last month because I am generally a crier (sigh!), but also because, as with any change, there are both positives and negatives. Every change in life I suppose is composed of both of these! But I have to say that these few earlier episodes have taken me by surprise. I think it is because the reality of leaving many people I truly like is setting in.

But that being said, it is kind of funny how some folks have described this when they talk about my retirement… “Sailing off into the sunset.” While that is a very common phrase to describe retirement, somehow it just wasn’t what I wanted to call it for me. I asked them to start saying “Sailing off into the sunRISE” instead…because I definitely don’t see this as an ENDING for me, but a NEW BEGINNING full of a new day’s promise. They laughed, but actually thought it was a very good thought, so now that is what they say! I told my manager, who is much younger than me, that I felt it my duty to help them all look ahead to realize what their own retirements might look like! He thought that was pretty good! As I have tried to emphasize in these blogs, brainstorming and writing down your ideas of what you want to do and accomplish are important both for NOW and in your retirement years!

So, whether you are ready to retire or looking at it in the near or far future, think of every day as a new sunrise!

See you next time!

Mary

HI everyone!

This blog today is being actually WRITTEN about 5 months after my last blog, as opposed to my last blog being POSTED in July. I was in Roatan late Feb to early March…now I have been back at work for about 5 months, so first, as I write this current blog: a) I am less than 3 months from my retirement date now (YEAH!), and b) this blog and going forward will be written from the perspective of final preparations for actual retirement, and observations about myself and others in this time frame of final preparation for the big “R”!!

First, it is interesting to note how my perspective is different today, in July, even compared to that from being in Roatan. More experiences, actual announcement at work that I will retire in October, finalizing a few of the nitty gritty details, all makes this now EXTREMELY REAL! EXCITING, though I will admit, a little bit scary!

When I got back from Roatan, it was very much “business as usual” at work. I hadn’t finalized my actual retirement date yet, but my team knew it was coming up this year. We devised a plan for me to work with my successor, someone I had been working with for a few years already, to train with me to take over my job duties. From my return through June, we have really only been able to meet once a week for me to do a “download” of overall information. That has been necessary and good but was only really in preparation for her to actually “do” the work. She is still in deep throes of fulfilling her current job obligations, so time is limited. However, it is getting pretty real now; we have worked together on a few items, so she is starting to get her feet wet. She gets copied on everything and is getting to know the teams I work with, so that is all good. She will do great, and that is a relief to me, knowing I am leaving it all in good hands. Plus, she will have support from our larger team as well till she gets HER successor up and running!

A job posting was made to backfill for her position, and interviews have started. Hoping to find the right fit soon, so I can help her train that new position, AND get more in detail on training her for mine.

Lots of balls in the air!

With all of that, my team has been very supportive, very happy for me, but sad to see me go. I have been blessed with a wonderful team of co-workers! While I am definitely ready to leave the stress of the actual job behind, I will miss the people a lot! I want to leave them all as prepared as possible…and it has all been part of our team goals during this year. The new person in my job and her successor will put their own mark on things, which is a good thing, but of course, they all need to understand where to start! LOL!

Such is part of these final realities for me!

More observations and realities for me next time. For now, take care!

Mary