Here I am, down to about two weeks before retirement. Fourteen days, which are about all the notice that employees in other lines of work need to give employers before resigning.
My employer required sixty days.
Because I have not been working in our extended school year program for special needs students this summer, the sixty days have provided a quiet, restful transition time that I have very much appreciated.
During the forty plus days that have passed, I admit to having momentary twinges of retiree regret, akin, I think, to buyers’ remorse.
Buyers’ remorse.
What have I bought?
Hopefully, I’ve bought myself more time and energy… Time and energy to grow older and wiser without the drain and strain of commitments and responsibility to hundreds of elementary students and their teachers.
What has it cost?
The letting go of a work identity, as well as the satisfaction, challenge, and joy of growing older and wiser through interaction with hundreds of elementary students and their teachers in my role as library media specialist.
Retiree regret? Buyers’ remorse?
Burned out. Stressed out. Empty tank. …No, I’m on the right course, not only for me, but for my colleagues and students.
More time and energy.
I’m ready. Bring on life in a different mode—
Slower, yet undoubtedly filled with stressors and strains of different sorts, I suppose, but no less full and fulfilling, if I work at retirement and let its challenges and satisfactions keep me teaching and learning as long as I have breath–as long as I’m alive.
Have you ever experienced voluntary change-of-employment venue or status remorse of sorts?
Retiremint 
Being “out” now 12 months, I can tell you that the feelings of remorse will continue a bit. (sorry) It feels a bit like a roller coaster – highs of freedom and lows of grief. Someone suggested to me to relook at grief management as the feelings can be similar. (it helped) I also had to work through loss of identity, loss of affiliation and loss of structure. Happy to connect with you if you’d like to talk some of the ways I did it.
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Thank you so much for reading, responding, and offering to share more insights. Have thought there would be parallel in retirement with E.Kubler Ross’s stages of grief, but truthfully haven’t wanted fully to explore that (yet). Would be happy to go offline to chat. God bless you! THANKS!
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Me too, me too!!!!!! Oh do I know how you feel. I have two weeks of work left and then that’s it. The end of 36 years in public education. So glad I found your blog. The hardest part for me thus far is although I consider myself to be intelligent, insightful, self-reflective (I’m a counsellor for crying out loud) yet the impact of this retirement (to be) has come over me like waves. I didn’t see this coming. Finding others who are/have experienced the same emotions is a oasis of hope. Take care and thanks for taking time to share your experiences.
Carol
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God bless you, Carol! Thank you so very much for taking time to read/respond. Please stay in touch. Like you, I really am needing to share thoughts and fears, as well as practical info, with others on the same journey. We need to stick together! …Are you on Twitter? Am wishing there were a way of grouping ourselves as other groups with things in common do. Please share your insights and expertise..Am happy to share my email, if that works for less public conversation. Also, my daughter is a h.s. Eng. teacher considering a switch to counseling. I’d love your thoughts for her. Please do keep in touch! Thanks again so much! bk
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I was reading a blog this morning about the concept of an “Outer Circle” – a (new) group of (women) friends who are experiencing similar aspects of mid-life and are there to be cheerleaders, accountability partners, sounding boards. Not the Inner Circle of long-time friends, but an “outer circle” who might be far flung, but are really in tune with what you are experiencing in midlife changes. The blog was more about mid-life career change, but it made me think of some of the women I am meeting on line – BK, Carol, Holly, Martha. Yeah, you are all becoming my “outer circle”!
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Amen!!! …Just sent you an email before reading your comment. …You know what they say about “great minds” (or “great minds with great shared experiences,” with the accent on the latter “great,” as in monumental).. After reading the email, please let me know what you think. …I’m totally on-board and eternally grateful for our being members of the “Outer Circle” you described. Yes! We need to be “cheerleaders, accountability partners, sounding boards” for each other. Precisely!!! Thank you so much for naming the need/phenomenon!
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