Maybe I thought if retirement wasn’t spoken out loud, it wouldn’t actually happen to me, which is true. For so many reasons retirement has become an option, not a mandate. The option part is largely due to a dire need for workers, skilled and otherwise to fill positions left vacant. The younger workforce has other ideas for career satisfaction which kicked the door open for people like me. It has also become important since savings have been spent chasing dreams so the ability to continue earning is critical. 

While the other numbers were highly anticipated and noted an important benchmark in my life, I attempted to ignore this one and viewed it with a certain amount of trepidation and finality.  Sixty-five was a number that I allowed only a fleeting consideration of, to be addressed at a future date. After all, age is as much personal perception as a date on a calendar, right? Here is my quandary; the two annual dates for your reality check-your birthday and New Years are one in the same for me. As I feel sorry for myself, I have to acknowledge the fact that because of this I never paid for a drink on New Years Eve-I was the “Birthday Boy” and “Happy New Year’s” all in one.  A belated “Thank You” to all that bought me a drink-Cheers!

You navigate your life journey every day, assembling friends, family and memories. The days turn to weeks, month to years. Similar to streaming music, life played out in real-time interrupted by the soundtrack of laughter and tears-without the pause button of course. At first you took pictures of it all; your honeymoon, baby’s first steps, Christmas and every vacation. After each roll of film was developed, everyone gathered to relish and celebrate the event documented by the pictures. Then came the camera on your phone. The pictures didn’t stop; they increased exponentially but the only place they went was the “cloud,” and were rarely viewed. The ritual of gathering to see the latest pictures became a memory just like the pictures themselves. The graying hair and wrinkles were there you just didn’t notice them because life moved so gradually. Living life offered the occasional flashback and depending on the trigger, seemed fresh-recent even, so time moved ever so slowly into the future. Looking into the mirror offered the only daily tangible clue that time hadn’t stopped.  The undeniable truth though was in my wallet in the form of my driver’s license and the looming renewal date that foreshadowed the next colonoscopy.