Retirement STRAIGHT Talk:
Stories and Wisdom from Educators
PREFACE
..... Why is retiring so difficult for many people? Why is something so inevitable and predictable also so full of apprehension and anxiety? What can be done to change this transition picture so that retirement becomes a time for glowing and growing?
..... Everyone retires, eventually. Advance signals are clear and plentiful: social security withdrawals from every paycheck, older friends and associates who have already left the workplace, discrete inquiries of future plans by associates, mailbox reminders of retirement seminars, AARP invites to membership, and prolonged looks at the older face in the mirror. These telltale signs mark the trail to one of life’s biggest transitions; yet, the surprise elements hang over so many people like a dark cloud rather than a new dawn.
.... Few, if any, mentors to retirement come forth within the workplace, because current bosses typically are preoccupied with production, profit, or forward progress and because earlier retirees are long gone and separated from their former moorings. Accountability for those who remain on the job centers on institutional continuity, not preoccupation with those departing. In the midst of a crowd of long term colleagues, the pending retiree senses a growing distance, the jagged edges of separation, and acute aloneness.
.... Speaking to educators who are drawing close to retirement, this book helps by putting words to feelings, giving answers to critical questions, and providing a helpful road map that draws from the experience of hundreds of educators – teachers, principals, and superintendents – who bring recollections to pre-retirement and perspective to post-retirement. Their life stories are like headlights that point out road signs to possible destinations and illuminate critical crossroads on the way.
.... My objective is not to prescribe paths but to illustrate possibilities. My desire, thereby, is to encourage the reader to think positively and constructively about pending retirement and the years beyond ....