One Year Ago

One year ago. My last day in the office. My last day in the corporate world. I had spent the past ten years of my career as a Chief Information Officer in the financial services industry. The role was challenging and often quite stressful. Deciding to retire was not easy. Aside from the financial considerations — have we saved enough? will we have enough? — there was also a sense of fear and apprehension. What will happen next? Will we be okay?

One year ago we took the last walk to the office.

A photographer captured that moment as we were approaching the main entrance for the corporate retirement celebration. It all felt a bit unreal. After all, I had been working for most of my adult life and now we had arrived at this point: the end of work.

Lorraine and I have been married just over 40 years now.

The years pass but we have travelled through life together. Always together.

We really had no idea what our future would look like back then.

At the time I wanted to be a musician. Still playing after all these years.

And now, one year into retirement, what does the future look like?

We are living a nomadic lifestyle in our coach. And we are loving it. We are in a new community in Canada. And we are loving it. We will be returning to Florida in a few months. And we love being there.

One year into retirement and we are doing just fine.

I can hardly remember the years spent working. I gave it my best shot and we have finished the stage of life known as work. We finished that stage well.

We are now at the start of the stage of life known as retirement.

Yes, mortality does make itself known at this stage of life. But the gift of time has allowed me to become far more active in my volunteer work in the areas that I am most passionate: music and audio.

Lorraine and I have far more time to build relationships and we have made so many new friends since the start of our retirement.

Retirement one year later has been awesome.

Marg Vermeersch says:

July 22, 2019 at 1:34 pm

Congratulations on such an amazing transition to your new life. Mike and I don’t call it retirement, we call it graduation – and the freedom to experience new adventures and to learn new things whenever you feel like it.

All the best to you and Lorraine as you travel new paths.

Marg