Picture this: you're at a work event, and someone mentions they wake up at 5 AM to drink their black coffee alone before anyone else is awake. The room goes quiet. Someone makes a joke about being antisocial. Others exchange knowing looks. We've all been there, right? That moment ...Read More
When I retired, I spent the first three weeks convinced I was on holiday. I cleaned out cupboards. I walked the dog at odd hours. I made elaborate lunches for no one in particular. Then somewhere around week four, the feeling crept in — not boredom exactly, but ...Read More
There is a specific kind of grief that doesn’t arrive with a funeral, a diagnosis, or a clear ending. It slips in quietly, often disguised as restlessness, irritability, or a strange sense that something is “off” when everything in your life is supposedly fine. I’ve seen it in so ...Read More
A few months after I retired from my role as Associate Director of Teaching and Learning, I sat in a craft class surrounded by strangers. Nobody asked what I used to do. Nobody asked because nobody cared. The instructor called me by my first name, handed me some ...Read More
Busyness after retirement is widely celebrated as a sign of healthy adjustment, and that assumption is almost entirely wrong. The retired person who volunteers four days a week, joins three committees, and takes up pickleball before the farewell cake has gone stale receives admiration from friends, family, and ...Read More
Robert, a former logistics director who spent thirty-one years coordinating supply chains across Southeast Asia, told me about a neighbourhood Christmas party seven weeks after his retirement. He was standing near the drinks table, holding a glass of something sparkling, when a woman he hadn't met extended her ...Read More