Badly missed working structured life after retirement as a teacher

Thinking a lot about co-workers and classrooms since after retirement.

Had build a new routine for daily life of exercising, swimming, reading , browsing the web and yet find many empty hours of not having anything to do.

Will try to get part time teaching, not out of financial need but rather to fulfill the need to remain socially connected.

Told myself 64 years old is old enough just to watch the world goes by and live the remaining years the way I want to live.

6 months into retirement, and I have yet to find the bliss. While not actually depressed, but there is this gnawing feeling of discontentment and lack of the sense of well-being.

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Badly missed working structured life after retirement as a teacher
by: Spain

I fully understand you and everyone who is bored with retirement. i am only 51 years old so lucky you , you worked more years than me.

Here there are no jobs or volunteer jobs in my area.

My 18 year old son is alway out.

I get tired or the long days of sunshine every single day.

Most of my time is spent reading, tv, sometimes meeting acquaitenances. Here people come and go all the time. Once you made good friends with someone, they are leaving. You try to stay connected by social community but it is not the same.

So spend most days on my own wishing the time would fly like before.

I am just posting to let you know you are not alone and lots of us here feeling the same way.
Enlightening words from Loyce
by: Anonymous

Many thanks to Loyce for your enlightening words.
Bliss or True Calling?
by: Joe Joe W. Your NaJoeme/Location

Congrats on reaching the retirement age of self-discovery. I noticed that your are searching for Bliss. Retirement has many variables but i think it might be easier for you to find your 'true calling' rather than the utopian Bliss.

Maybe, it's part time teaching or like myself, I went in a totally new direction without much help from the past at all. In retirement life we have the option to discipline and structure ourselves, instead of being structured by the corporate life's policies and procedures.

Joe W.
It took me longer than 6 months
by: Nancy

When you think about it, retirement is the biggest change you will have in your life. Unless, of course, you have kids which I never did.

All those years of growing up trying to decide what you want to do when you grow up, going to school, college, and working for decades. That's a lot of time focused on a career, so 6 months compared to those decades is nothing.

I ended my working years as a counselor only because I couldn't find a teaching job after I married and moved to another state, but I always wanted to go back to teaching. So I understand very well why you miss teaching. If my health were better, I would substitute teach.

Keep coming back to this group, this is where you will find support and people who are going through the same thing as you.

That's what helped me before and after retirement, communicating with others in the same boat.
I miss it too, but ...
by: Anonymous

I was forced into retirement at 58. I thought I'd work again, but life had different plans.

I do miss the routine and most of all a circle of friends, especially a close circle of women. I was "on" when I was working. Having a schedule and routine for almost 40 years, I managed my free time better.

Now I'm like, "eh, I'll do it tomorrow". It also has it's pluses. I'm definitely changed, happy to do what I want and free of stress that only got worse over time and affected my health.

So many years of getting up at 5 am gets taxing, so that's something I'm happy is over. On the minus side, work friends start to slip away. Everyone goes on.

Next, we'll be moving to another state and start over. It's much needed and to have such a huge goal again will be stimulating for me. Best part is I don't have to do all the work on weekends and nights. I'm on my own schedule.

Everything in life has it's pluses and minuses. It's finding more positives that we need to seek and I've always seen the glass as half full.
Badly Missed Working Structure
by: Elaine/Pennsylvania&Florida

64 is way too young to, as you say, sit back and let the world go by. You spent many years educating.

Have you thought about volunteering your services and knowledge somewhere? All organizations are always in need of good, dedicated volunteers. Where ever your interest lies is where you should start. Senior centers, civic organizations, service clubs, child care centers, hospitals, nursing homes.

I have a friend who resisted the computer as long as she could. Now she teaches it to residents in a nearby nursing home. We need to keep our minds active as we age. I've always felt that we can be as busy an

d active as we want to be barring any physical limitations. By the sound of things you have a lot to share. I retired from a law enforcement agency position but am still working part time.

When I am totally retired I plan to volunteer at an abused women's shelter. Just as an example to you.
TRANSITIONS
by: Loyce!/Auburn, CA

We are all transitioning from one plane to another and self-contentment is necessary for pleasure and peace of mind so we must dig down deep to find what gives us pleasure and satisfaction and then we must dig it out and this endeavor takes time as we travel a new road and learn about ourselves and what might make us tick.

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