Retirement

So, random thoughts indeed.  I have now officially retired from practicing law at a small law firm.  I am on my second week as of this cloudy and cold Monday Morning.  As I was making breakfast and thinking about life, I realized that I felt a bit different this morning than I did during the last week.  So I decided that I would record from time to time the process of moving from working (for money) full time to working (for the fun of it) part time.


I feel a bit different this morning because this past week I would find myself feeling very anxious and upset almost as if I worried about being at home when I should have been at work.  I felt as I did early in my career when I took any time off (even recognized holidays when everyone else was off as well).  My wife often commented that I couldn't seem to relax.  I thought last week as I was feeling anxious that it would probably take a month or two before that feeling went away.

Part of the reason for feeling as I do is attributable to the way in which my retirement came about.  This last year although I had pretty much decided that I would stop working, I was very busy at work.  I did not take any vacation and I worked some on just about every holiday.  When I made the decision to retire and made the announcement, I was working for the most part on a big case that was set to go to trial in the middle of January. While I did not consider myself all that important to the effort, I had been working on the matter for over four years and did have some institutional knowledge others may not have had.  Consequently, I agreed to stay on and see the case through trial.
 After my announcement, I divested myself of all other matters on which I was working and transferred responsibility for all other clients except for the one with the large case.  I also began clearing out my office.   As a result by the middle of December, I was pretty much ready to leave at the conclusion of the litigation.  I worked hard in December and as these things are wont to do, the case settled on Friday January 3.  I left in the middle of the afternoon and have only been back for about half an hour to take down my pictures and remove my computer.

I have compared that experience to running into a wall at 60 mph; one minute you are zooming full tilt and the next  you have come to a complete stop.  No matter how uncomfortable you have found the journey, such an abrupt deceleration is uncomfortable.

So last week I spent somewhat at loose ends.  I did some  housework, practiced the piano went to the store etc, but was not very comfortable in my own skin.  Today it feels a bit better.   We'll see how it goes.  Maybe I will even have the inclination (I certainly have the time) to finish some of the other blog posts I have started..