Saying Goodbye to A Daily Routine is Hard, But Retirement Has Its Perks

Daily writing prompt

Describe a phase in life that was difficult to say goodbye to.

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The last day of teaching at the college was one of pure ambivalence. I was ready to leave the workplace, but I didn’t want to lose my sense of purpose. I worked for twenty-three years at the telephone company, assigned to nearly all shifts: 8 to 5, 3-11, and 11pm-7am. In each case, I developed a routine on rising, eating, working, taking care of children’s needs, watching television, and sleeping. I could tell you what I was doing at any moment of the day, especially when there were only three channels, and shows were on specific days of the week.

When I took early retirement after my Information Technology job was outsourced to another company, I immediately went to college full-time to earn the right to teach Sociology at the college level. Even though the children had left by then for their own adventures, I still had routines with scheduled classes, so I had a life planned out each day.

But after nearly twenty years of teaching in universities and colleges across the United States, I retired just after the pandemic in 2020. I didn’t like teaching online because I couldn’t insist that students show their faces, so I never knew whether I was teaching one person or 50. So, after the pandemic, missing a daily routine, I went back to teaching at a local community college. Once again, I loved the routines in my life, and I felt useful and purposeful.

But age catches up with you, and the time comes when the body insists on more rest. I stopped teaching and lost that sense of usefulness and the routines that accompanied it. That was a hard phase in my life, because I had not prepared for it. If you plan to retire, ensure you have something else to do. I started blogging, but I am not consistent because I have not created a routine, which I think most good bloggers do. I am working on creating a routine to help me find the balance I need to feel useful and of value to others once again.

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