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! LOL!
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