But What Now?

One of the things you leave behind when you retire is your work identity. It’s that answer you give to people when they ask, “So, what do you do?”

When I was younger, I remember that my work identity was very important. I compared my work identity (or work title) with my friends and acquaintances. I worked in various libraries at the time (jobs I have fond memories of now), but didn’t have the title ‘librarian,’ instead I was ‘just’ a ‘library tech.’

I envied people who received professional journals in the mail. Eventually, I had the opportunity to get vocational training. Since this was 10 years ago, and it was being paid by a government agency, I was steered towards computer training, specifically MCSE training.

Since then, I’ve made great strides in my profession, getting quick promotions where now I am pretty much at the top of my grade. I get so many professional journals that most of them make it to the recycle bin almost immediately. I no longer envy others or compare myself with others, in fact now I can hardly wait to to tell people that I am retired, although I will probably come up with something even more fun to call myself.

Now that I’ve made it this far, instead of having fun playing with computers, I am managing people and projects. I’m sure there are some people out there who would love this kind of work, but I’m not one of them. Hence, I am counting down the days until I can officially retire from this job and receive health insurance and a small pension.

Once I get there, I know I will have lots of options and choices. I’ll write about that another time!