My Next Chapter: A Retirement Journey

I’m so excited to be starting my next chapter: After more than 40 years of full-time work, I’m retiring the end of July!

I’m not sure exactly what will come next. And after decades of a highly structured work life, that feel pretty thrilling.

I expect to take a few months off to decompress and recharge. I haven’t had a summer off since I was in junior high school, and I’m eagerly looking forward to controlling my own schedule.

So far, my plan is: plenty of time to relax, see friends and family, read, take an online class or two, visit some fun local places, travel to other fun places, work on a few hobby coding projects, take an occasional hike, spend more time on my bicycle, do a little more running to get in shape for a 5K, get to the gym more, do more photography, play with R. . . . It feels like that’s more than enough to keep me busy through autumn.

I’ll also keep following tech issues I find compelling – especially the R programming language and generative AI. I expect to stay active on Mastodon and LinkedIn posting about interesting tech news. And, I have a website at machlis.com which has links to some of my tech projects and articles.

Once the weather gets cold and I’m spending more time inside, I’ll think about how I want to shape my days and weeks.

Volunteer work? Freelancing? More travel? More hobby projects? Mull how I might help confront the ageism that’s rampant in Western society? Continue living a life of leisure awhile longer - perhaps indefinitely?

“Retirement” doesn’t seem like a good word to define this stage of life. It carries the whiff of “withdrawal” or “stepping back”. But it doesn’t feel like that at all.

While my professional life was a very important part of me, it wasn’t the only part. Soon, other parts of me will have a chance to flourish. I don’t expect who I was when working full time to disappear, but evolve. Just as who I was in high school was part of me when I went to college, and who I was in college informed who I became when I started full-time work, this is a new life stage for evolution and growth.

“Retirement is an incredible opportunity for self-discovery,” writes Ernie Zelinski. “You get to find out who you really are and who you would like to be.”

Looking forward to the journey! I’ll be blogging about it at My Next Chapter.