When you retire, every day is Friday, but no day will likely recapture the glorious expectancy of Friday. You may miss that Friday feeling, when you leave work in anticipation of a weekend of sleep and diversion and not filling in hours on a timesheet. In spite of the annoyances you don’t miss, you may miss the comfort of the workday routine, of knowing what you’ll be doing all day, of feeling that your life’s work matters. You can expect to miss the people you worked with for years and your daily familiarity. There’s no guilt in just catching up on “Ted Lasso.” You might want to ease yourself into the retired life.

Although you’ve probably recited a list of projects to everyone you know who has asked you what you plan to do in retirement, you do not have to start them all on your first day off. I therefore offer these bits of insight into the vagaries of retirement, to both recent retirees and those considering the same. Now my husband has joined me in retirement, and I am watching him go through a process I thought was unique to me. Did I retire too early? The crossover from work to retirement proved trickier to navigate than I anticipated. Although I liked my work, as a writer I was happy to quit my day job and jump into my true calling.īut on some days, the thought nags. We agreed that I would commute only for a year, as the drive was exhausting, and my paycheck didn’t really justify it. The year before, we had moved 50 miles away from my work site in order to take advantage of a promotion for my husband. I retired several years ago from my job in a state prison library. If you’ve recently retired from the workforce, you know that the question can assail you in unguarded moments: Did you retire too soon?

Worms reloaded off center screen