Retirement? ......I don't think so!
THIS WILL NEVER BE ME!
Having more than one career
I love to work. In fact, you could say I am a work-a-holic. Don't know where I picked up such a strong work ethic, but it seems like I've always been driven by it. By the time I was 12, I was running my own neighborhood baby-sitting agency. This went on for a couple of years, then I got my first real job at age 14 in a local grocery store. At that time, many places hired 14 year-olds as there were not stringent labor laws for children. By the time I was 16, I was working for J L Hudson Department stores in Detroit, Michigan for the credit department. Later, I worked at a bank, for a Vacuum Sweeper Co., writing up advertising copy, and at a General Motors plant, testing newly hired employees. I was always working.
By the time I graduated from high school and decided to go to college, I was working summers at a local swimming pool, behind the towel counter. I spent five years at Wayne State University, first studying Art for a year and then switching to a more practical undergrad degree with a double major in English composition and Teaching. After that, much more education and working a myriad of short-term jobs, too long to mention here. I ended up with a Master's in music and certification to teach music, English, Social Studies, ESL, and students with learning problems.
What does all this have to do with retirement?
Career #1
Just this: I was prepared to do a lot of things. I was organized and had good planning skills and I loved to work. So it was feasible that I could actually have more than one career. And that's exactly what I have done. I was a teacher in the high schools of Chicago and simultaneously a teacher of English as a Second Language in a local college night school. After leaving the high schools, I taught at the University of Illinois and worked on a PhD in Education at the same time.
Career #2
Now let me ask you, do you think a work-a-holic, type A, perfectionist could retire happily? Of course not. Well, she sort of retired, for a couple of months that is. But soon reinvented herself as an Innkeeper and started career #2.
Opening a bed and breakfast was challenging, fun, and cost a hell of a lot of money; more than I ever anticipated. Being a risk-taker, I went into it not knowing a thing about business, in retrospect; not too bright an idea. I made it work though, with a lot of tenacity, blood, sweat, and a few tears and have been a successful Innkeeper for 15 years,
Career #3
It's been a great ride, but I am ready for a change now. I am ready for Career #3. Retirement you ask? Maybe I never will retire, because in my next career I plan to write. With bones aching and arthritis creeping up into every joint, I can thankfully still type on my computer. I will sit in a lovely overstuffed leather desk chair and happily document my life as an Innkeeper and write articles for hubpages and the other sites where I will continue to earn a little chump change and still feel productive. Retire?......I don't think so.
