A College of My Own Making

Various moments in life give rise to self-examination -- why am I here, what do I want to be "when I grow up?"  Moments like heading off to college, reaching a career decision-point, having a baby, facing a mid-life crisis. Retirement is one of those moments. What constitutes a "good" retirement, in general and for me in particular? When I was preparing to retire, I did quite a bit of reading. Some of it was very helpful; some seemed a little silly. A recurring theme for a good retirement, just as it is for life before retirement, is balance. It's just that the balancing act becomes a bit different.

We all know people, either in our immediate circle or through association, whose retirement is cut unfairly short by incapacitating illness or even death. So one side of the equation we retirees need to balance is "life is short." Hence, my efforts (along with my spouse and traveling companion) to see as much of the world as possible. 

On the other hand, we also know that life expectancy is considerably longer for our generation than it was for our parents or grandparents, so we need to be prepared that we might be retired for as many years as we worked. While that doesn't necessarily mean that a retiree's second act has to be another career or paid work, it does mean preparing for the possibility of many years after paid work ends, or, as Mary Catherine Bateson calls it, "Composing a Further Life."

Today marks the 7th anniversary of my retired life, and I'm still discovering what I want to do and how to feel like I'm using my time well. Lately, I've been reading a lot more and my taste continues to be eclectic. And I've been thinking about what that means and whether so much reading is an "acceptable" investment of my time.

Early in my career at IBM, many of us had the opportunity to work with a career counselor. We took some kind of vocational aptitude and interest test. I have no idea what test it was, but a comment by the counselor has stayed with me. "You have a really strong affinity for learning," he told me with considerable surprise in his voice. Apparently that was something he saw more frequently in college professors than in IBM systems engineers. And I've often said to young acquaintances headed off to college, "Enjoy these years. Never again will it be your job just to read and learn things."

Another telling self-revelation question is "who do you envy and why?" I don't strongly envy anyone at this point because I consider myself incredibly lucky to be living the life that I'm living. But if pressed, I would have to say Kerri Miller. She's my favorite public radio personality in the Twin Cities. She's a knowledgeable, insightful interviewer on a wide range of topics. She also reads widely and has a tremendous "book club" following both on and off the air. Listening to her makes me think "I'd love to have a job where someone pays me to read."

Aha! Basically, with a pension and retirement savings to support me, I do have a job where "someone" is paying me to read. Of course, voracious reading requires a balancing act of its own. What's the right mix of fiction versus non-fiction? How many guilty pleasure books do I allow myself as palate cleansers? I'm still working through creating my syllabus, a college of my own making, but suffice it to say that I agree with a fellow retiree who said "I have so many books on my 'to read' list that I'll need to live forever to finish all of them." My Goodreads list keeps growing. I don't think I'm in any danger that my "read" count will ever exceed my "to read" count.