The Start of It All

Hmmm .... where to start? Guess I should start at the beginning. Many, many years ago I was born to - - oops - too far back, I guess. That would be boring to most if not all of you. Guess I should start maybe with my retirement.
I retired December 31 2007, after 32 + years of working for the Federal Government, not to mention all the other jobs I have held since I was 16 years of age. There wasn't any one thing that made up my mind to retire - in actuality, it was many cumulative things over several years. I had been more or less musing about retirement for a couple of years before, however didn't feel that the time was right. I got to seriously thinking of retirement around March of 2007, after hearing through the office grape-vine of a good friend and co-worker's death at age 53, due to a major heart attack caused by work stress. That got me thinking about my own mortality, as he was 6 years younger than me at the time of his passing. I realized that we don't live forever and I was determined that I was going to get some benefit from working all these years, no matter how much more time I had on this mortal coil we call earth!
I made the appropriate enquiries with our staffing section and after reviewing all of the information available to me, I made the decision to call it a day and subsequently put in my "official notice" of pending retirment.
After having given notice, it felt like a great weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. However, that feeling was short-lived, as the next few months prior to retirement were extremely busy for me. I had to finalize actions on accounts that I was responsible for, arrange for their transfer to another officer or two, ensure that there were a couple of staff trained to take over some of the enforcement/search facilities that I handled, dissolve myself of other responsibilites I had and also to fill out paperwork for my pending retirement.
Paperwork! My God, there was paperwork! I swear that you complete more paperwork when you retire than you ever do anytime during your lifetime! Fill out this form in duplicate, that form in triplicate and those forms in quadruplicate! WOW! Anyways, with a bit of guidance from a wonderful Human Resources individual and a bit of luck, I actually managed to get through all the paperwork and sent it in.
At the end of November 2007, my friends and co-workers threw me a wonderful retirement party, for which I am eternally grateful and will remember for the rest of my days. There was a large turnout - I didn't think I had made that much impact with that number of people, but I was wrong (one of the few times in my life, ha ha). Anyways, it was a lovely party and everyone had a good time. Of course, there were the obligatory "potshots" at me by friends and management, but I took it in the spirit that it was given and thoroughly enjoyed it. During my rebuttal, I was going to go for a few zingers of my own, but changed my mind and just thanked everyone that came to the send-off (even though I was going to be around for another month), those that had faith in my abilities over the years and in particular my family, without whom I would never have reached this point in my life. I also, during my speech, provided all those in attendance with the following thought:

Happiness is a journey. We convince ourselves that life will be better after
we get married, have a baby, then another. Then we're frustrated that the kids
aren't old enough and we'll be more content when they are. After that, we're
frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We'll certainly be happy
whenthey're out of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete
when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, are able
to go on a nice vacation, when we retire. The truth is, there's no better time
to be happy than right now. If not now, when? Our lives will always be filled
with challenges. It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy
anyway. This perspective has helped me to see that there is no way to happiness.
Happiness is the way. So treasure every moment that you have and treasure it
more because you have shared it with someone special - special enough to spend
your time with, at work or at home ... and remember that time waits for no one.
Happiness is a journey, not a destination. So work like you don't need money,
love like you've never been hurt, and dance like no one's watching.

I officially retired on December 31, 2007 and haven't looked back since. In my next post, I will try to not be so long-winded and will bring you more up to date since my retirement. Until then,

Grandpa out ..........