Today has been the last day of my regular, full-time employment. Yes, just a few days ago I wrote how wonderful it is to be working with my peers. Now I am retired.
My peers are still wonderful; my employer is still wonderful. As a Unix system administrator, however, I have had a significant number of sick servers paging me at 3:00am, and scheduled downtime from 00:00 to 05:00 Sunday morning. As frequently happens with old folks, I have had some difficulty sleeping, so the late night work on top of chronic sleep problems has been unpleasant.
As much as I have touted coming out at the same job, it has also been a little too easy. That is, at work I have been trusting that my employer would protect me from hostility. I don’t have that protection any longer.
I am looking for volunteer opportunities, and possibly working with the neighborhood civic league or city boards and councils. I might take some adult education classes, too, or start learning to play a musical instrument. I approach these opportunities with confidence, but I will also feel a need to be circumspect when discussing my personal life — more so than with my job, where everyone sort of knew anyway.
I’m excited at the possibilities. Wish me luck!