Retirement Transition

5 months and 5 days.

According to my countdown app.

Not that I pay much attention to the countdown, other than to remind myself that I do not have much time left at work to finish a number of objectives.

I have been planning for this day for many years. The date itself is a bit later than expected. I thought I would retire in my late fifties. I will be sixty-one when I make the transition into retirement.

When I say planning for retirement, I really mean financial planning. Although Lorraine and I have a good sense of how we hope to spend our time in retirement and, as with all new experiences, we are not necessarily sure what to expect, most of our planning time has been spent in looking at the financial side.

As the date is quickly approaching, I am a touch uneasy. There are a number of challenges that many seem to encounter when they make the transition into retirement: loss of identity, loss of structure, and a heightened sense of mortality.

Over the past several months, I keep encountering “endings” in my life, a stark reminder that my time on this earth is closing. I’ve allowed myself some negative thoughts. I wonder what I might lose next.

All due, I suspect, to being in-between the world of working and the world of retirement.

I’ll make it to the other side and, when I do, I’ll give myself some time. To relax, to get myself reoriented to a new way of living. I’ll craft a new identity, create new routines, build new friendships and relationships, and find a new path to travel.