Am I Sweating Too Much to Call This Retirement? - Stephane

12 days into retirement and I have spent most of my time cleaning out the house we sold, moving our stuff to storage, and getting the basement suite in the house ready for this winter’s tenant.

Certainly I have been working harder physically than when I was working at my job. When we were loading the moving truck my friend shouted “Hey! I have never seen Steph sweat before!”

I will miss some parts of my job, mostly the interactions with the people, work colleagues, and customers that I have gotten to appreciate through the years, but I definitely won’t miss the business travel, conventions, and events with crowds, and I especially won’t miss EXCEL spread sheets!

I have gone from 22 years working a job that I was pretty good at, and where I was well appreciated and successful, to doing very minor renos and household jobs that, frankly, I suck at… so I feel a little inadequate and incompetent. This has been tough.
One of the perks of my job that I will miss is the travel to Montreal on the company dime so I could see my kids and family while I was there for business. I might not see them in person as much from now on. That will be tough too.

We still have a couple of things to do before we leave for Mexico on Saturday… and that’s when real retirement starts; the long vacation in the sun part...the part where I lay by the pool. I am REAL GOOD at that so I am looking forward to that part of retirement for the next 6 months. When we come back from Mexico we will continue renovating the rest of the house and the one thing I am really looking forward to is the DEMOLITON !! woo hoo! I am good at that too!

Over the next 6 months there are several things I want to do, like scouting around visiting Mexico with Corrie, outdoor activities, play a lot more music, and learning songs, reading, and improving my swimming. I also want to be serious about learning Spanish because I have always wanted to learn another language. Maybe I will even discover other interests that I have never thought of.
I worked hard this week, yet I know I am “retired” because on Tuesday I got up and picked up the newspaper to read…