Beyond the Routine

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Personally, if I were to retire today, I wouldn't want to stop working. I would love to engage in pet projects like charity, and when eventually age does catch up with me and I have to be idle, living off my pension, I still would want to do things that I never had the opportunity to do while working, like travelling round the world, not alone but with my offspring or partner.

I am of the opinion that we are not just meant to work and die. Basically life is just too strategic for all our existence to be rigid or revolve around a particular routine.

For me, our youthful age should be the time where we plan, execute, and save up for our later years. I don't know about anyone else, but waking up in the same environment every day for the rest of my life, even upon retirement, would sure be boring as hell.

My best girl said it is her dream to travel till her last days and even die while at it. Something she said that struck me was that in her final days when she lies on her deathbed reminiscing about her younger years, she would have no regrets because she's basically living life to the fullest and strategizing for the continuity of such a lifestyle.

Growing up I used to hear this word from my mom, retired but not tired. I do remember when her active service with the government came to an end, and even without the commencement of her pension, she lived life as normal.

She became more involved in the home and with her grandchildren. With my mom, retirement wasn't the end of life, and I did learn a lot from how she handled it.

A couple of times I see people fall apart upon retirement. There was a story about the man who worked so hard round the clock, and eventually when he was forced into retirement by his children, he died.

People felt his body was already accustomed to stress and couldn't handle being idle, but to me, his mind just wasn't prepared for life outside a formal job or system.

When we become too rigid to change, the mind tends to give up, and death becomes inevitable. That’s why when I plan, it's usually long-term. For starters, upon retirement, it would be relocation. I hope to relocate to the northern part of Nigeria as a home base.

Lol, my friend said something crazy about not building a home because she would rather use all that money to travel from one city to another and have all her properties in her suitcase. Her choices are valid, and I have since quit putting pressure on her to build a home where she is, as she has already relocated to a place she feels could be a base while she stabilizes her intentions.

For me, I would love a home base, a place I can always come to for rest and energy preservation. I would love traveling, yes, but I also would get tired eventually and just want to be home with family.

I have tried travelling briefly for the holidays and indeed there is no place like home. Idealy retirement should come with options and choices on how one would chose to live after their active service and the best time to build these options are indeed our younger years. Like my ex would always say; suffer now and enjoy later.