{"id":30465,"date":"2018-06-23T00:00:44","date_gmt":"2018-06-23T00:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=30465"},"modified":"2018-06-23T00:00:44","modified_gmt":"2018-06-23T00:00:44","slug":"happy-trails-part-111-loving-the-term-retired","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=30465","title":{"rendered":"Happy Trails, Part 111: Loving the term ‘retired’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Time for an acknowledgement.<\/p>\n

It took me some time to get used to telling strangers that I am “retired.” I wasn’t uncomfortable<\/em> saying it. I have enjoyed virtually every minute of full-time retirement.<\/p>\n

It’s just that when someone would ask me, “What are you doing these days?” or “What line of work are you in?” I would freeze for just an instant before answering the question.<\/p>\n

These days, my wife and I are encountering many more strangers than longtime friends and acquaintances, given our new place of residence just north of Dallas in the pleasant community of Fairview.<\/p>\n

We meet folks. The question comes about my occupation. I now answer without taking a breath: I’m retired.<\/p>\n

Then comes the follow-up inquiry: You’re retired … from what?<\/p>\n

Then I tell them I was a journalist for nearly four decades.<\/p>\n

I’ve long noted since I resigned from the Amarillo Globe-News in the summer of 2012 that “separation anxiety from working every day is highly overrated.” I feel the same as what my wife and I felt about “empty nest syndrome,” which we also considered to be an overrated condition as well. Our sons left home right after high school to attend college and — to be totally candid — my wife and I felt a certain liberation.<\/em><\/p>\n

We feel the same way about retirement. We’re liberated<\/em> from the obligation of reporting to The Man, of having to be certain<\/em> places at certain<\/em> times and having to do certain<\/em> tasks for certain<\/em> people.<\/p>\n

Now that I getting acquainted with a new community filled with people I’ve never seen until now, I find myself answering the question about how I spend my days with increasing ease.<\/p>\n

I’m retired. <\/em><\/p>\n

It’s easy to type on my keyboard and it’s easy to say out loud.<\/p>\n

We’re having the time of our lives.<\/p>\n\n

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Time for an acknowledgement. It took me some time to get used to telling strangers that I am “retired.” I wasn’t uncomfortable saying it. I have enjoyed virtually every minute of full-time retirement. It’s just that when someone would ask me, “What are you doing these days?” or “What line of work are you in?” … Continue reading Happy Trails, Part 111: Loving the term ‘retired’<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3007,3920],"class_list":["post-30465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-metroplex","tag-retirement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30465"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30467,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30465\/revisions\/30467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}