If you’ve worked full time with long hours, lots of demands, and a fair amount of stress, retirement is an enormous change. And even good change takes time to process.
One of the biggest questions I had when I decided to retire: How long would it take before I‘d stop seeing myself as “no longer working” and settle into a new identity?
As I start my second year of good spring weather in retirement, it feels like the answer is: around now.
I retired in late July 2024. Since I live in New England, I had about 3 months of decent weather before half a year of, um, mostly less-than-ideal conditions. My first spring in retirement that following year felt amazing! I could (mostly) plan for outdoor fun whenever I wanted, even on a weekday!
The rhythm of my weeks moved from my employer’s calendar and needs to the weather. Nice day? Make outdoor plans. Crappy weather? Stay in and enjoy a hobby, take an online class, or work on a freelance writing project. I hadn‘t felt so in touch with seasons and the natural world since I was a kid.
And it was still all so new, that lack of work constraints.
Now, as my second year of nice spring weather (finally) arrives, I have a better idea of what that will feel like. I’m still incredibly grateful for the freedoms that retirement brings . . . but it’s less of a shock. It reminds me a bit of when we finally redid our kitchen after many years of saving up. One of the first nights after the project was finished, I remember walking around the new space, feeling both happy and disoriented. This was still our house, but in some ways, it felt like it wasn’t.
That’s a bit what my life in retirement felt like at the beginning. This was still my life, but wow was it different.
Even now, many years after that kitchen project, I sometimes sit in the new space and am grateful to have it, and am glad we decided to have the work done. But the “new” kitchen is our house now. That older, original space feels farther and farther away.
And that’s how I’ve experienced some other major changes, too – including retirement.
I haven’t forgotten what it’s like to be employed. I still remember very well what it was like to have a full work schedule! And I’m so grateful for the freedoms I have now.
But “working me” feels farther away. I don’t view my retired life as much from the perspective of “absence of work“ anymore.
It’s taken a while, but now, in this second spring since full-time employment, I think I’m finally settling into feeling that retirement is my life.
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