Gigi's Introduction to the Good Life

Retirement...
It's not a four letter word, but for so many years, it has seemed just as forbidden. A portal through which only the worthy can enter.

The journey begins well before the golden date with the invitation from AARP. I didn't join immediately, not out of denial, but because I was still working fulltime in education, pursuing a master's degree, running a home business, and renovating a house (read that as not a 9-5 job) and many invitations, timely birthday cards, visits with family and friends, always fell by the wayside.

The thirtieth birthday had been the traumatic one for me. I had been a believer of the media mantra that vibrant life ended at 29. In the seventies no one preached that thirty was the new twenty, forty was the new thirty and so on... as we are led to expect today. No, thirty was over the hill. Actually, it was more over the river and through the woods to grandmas' houses while juggling demands of work, young children, and husband. There are some warm memories from that period, and life did not end at 29.

As the dreaded fortieth approached, the old panic emerged. Thirty had not been the end of the world, but surely forty would be. I braced myself for the onslaught of old age. Then something wonderful happened. I was cultivating those fears when suddenly I realized that in my future I would be dreading another decade and wishing for a decade do-over. I made a decision then to embrace every age. I have kept that promise to myself and now in my "sexties", life is good.

So I joined AARP and continue to accept almost every benefit that senior citizendom affords me. The almost qualifier is that the senior final expense plans still go in the trash.

And now I am retired with so much more in life to embrace.