All my friends were surprised when I told them that I am not asking for any extension when I retire. I told them I have already reached my fullest potential as a university professor and now it’s time to focus on other aspects of my being. I know I still have a lot to share with the world but not as a full time professor anymore. I love to teach so I still accept occasional teaching projects. However, checking papers has become a drudge and drudgery is not for me.

I promised myself that when I retire  I will only do things that will make my heart sing and that’s what I’m doing now.  So when I reached the retirement age of 60, I welcomed the whole world into my life and now everything is a blast!   

 But first thing first, I have to make myself financially stable so I do not have to worry about where I will get my next meal or new set of clothes. So I placed some amount in some financial institutions and I just get regular interest from them for my daily needs. Now that that is settled I was ready to spread my wings and soar.

The things that make my heart sing now are: my family (of course), photography, writing, health and wellness, gardening, reading (I’ve got a backlog here!), spirituality, bowling, blogging, and hopefully hubbing soon.

   Because of my background in microscopy while in school, I was naturally attracted to macrophotography when I started my photography adventure. I focused on flowers and bugs and raindrops and even mundane things and tried to bring out aspects that others don’t normally see. I wrote about these in my later hubs.

 http://hubpages.com/hub/MAKING-FLOWERS-TALK-A-PHOTOGRAPHY-ADVENTURE

http://hubpages.com/hub/RaindropsA-Few-of-my-Favorite-Things

http://hubpages.com/hub/beauty-in-mundane-things

http://hubpages.com/hub/THE-SECRET-LIFE-OF-BUGS-in-my-Garden

Then I joined a camera club so I can interact with other people who have similar interest. There, I learned to explore other areas of photography like portraits, fashion, landscape, events and even journalistic photography. I also learned to compete and join photo contests.

I am happy to say that I have started winning some contests and even published some photos in magazines. Some of my winning photos are in my multiply site. http://saanva.multiply.com

Below are some of my first photos that I shared here.

I mentioned in my profile that I keep a few blogs and I have now published 20 hubs here in HP. I have even been a hubnugget through my hub on tea. http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Other-Uses-of-Tea. This recognition has kept me on my toes and increased my fans and friends.

I am really enjoying my time here in hubpages and even have developed friends. I cannot name all of you here right now but I just want to especially mention coffeesnob and James Watkins because they are the first ones who welcomed me here in hubpages. Actually they were my only fans for several weeks when I was struggling how to find my way around here in HP. I will properly acknowledge you my other friends here sometime soon. You know who you are of course.

I am singing more songs now through more time with my family, perfect health and wellness, gardening, reading (I still got a backlog here, but whoever has read all the books he/she wants to read?), and developing greater spirituality and connectedness with the world. Oh, and my bowling has improved a lot too!

I wish to end this revision to this, my first hub, through Louis Armstrong’s, “What A Wonderful World”.

This is the song in my heart now.