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Retiring at 29
My parents have been living with me for the past three weeks. My dad's been retired for a while already, but my mother has recently retired and this extended visit has been on her retirement wishlist for quite a while. This is a huge transition for my parents and especially my mom who has worked for the same company for the last 35 years. Every possible transition dysfunction that could have happened, happened. Although I'd like to think of this as something that is exclusive to my mother (since she's the one retiring), it's been, and still is a transition for everyone in the family. At work, I'm currently helping many parents deal with the transition of their child to college, and I can hear myself in the same role at home. Part of me thinks this is not quite the way to approach it, because I am after all, my mother's daughter. I shouldn't be so detached. But other times it's something concrete to hang on to and helps me through very difficult conversations with my parents.

Their retirment however, has made me think of mine. I'd like to retire. Like now. At 29. Especially if retirement means doing the things you want to do, and enjoying the whole process. I think this is the biggest difference between my parents' generation and mine. It is this sense that work is much more than just work. Much more than just rolling in the dough, fearing layoffs, hoping for a promotion. Sure, I'd love to make 100k a year, I'd love to own a beemer, I'd love to feel all important when my secretary greets me in the morning. I've watched my parents do all that and succeed in their endeavors, I've also watched them do all that and fail. But I just never quite got the sense that while they worked and succeeded, they never quite loved or enjoyed what they were doing.

I want to work, but not the way my folks did, or the way the baby boomer generation did. I'd like to work where part of that work sustains me spiritually and intellectually. I'd like to work so that working means never retiring because I'm really doing what I want to do and doing something that fulfils me. I realize also that my ability to even say or think or want this is the direct result of my parents having perhaps slaved away at the mercy of the corporate world. I am terribly spoilt in that way. But that doesn't mean that I shouldn't take advantage of these opportunities as they present themselves.

So here's to retiring at 29... and forever staying retired :)