Retirement - According to the Dictionary

The dictionary says retirement is “the action of leaving one’s job and ceasing to work.”

The dictionary has clearly never met me. I am busier now than I have ever been. I run two businesses. I volunteer with community events. I write this blog for Jackie Doing Jackie and one for Survive-It. I travel. I teach with the Justice Institue of BC. I go to the theatre. Out for dinner with friends. And I am not planning on stopping anytime soon.

My suitcase barely gets unpacked before I’m packing it again.

Last week I spent the morning writing an after action report, the afternoon on a Zoom debrief with volunteers, and the evening booking a flight to London. In between, I had coffee with a friend and wrote this. Tell me that’s ceasing to work.

Some mornings I wake up and think: shouldn’t I be slowing down? Isn’t that what this stage of life is supposed to look like? Then I remember. Slowing down was never the goal. Choosing was.

For 30-plus years, I helped communities get through disasters. I loved that work, and in many ways I still do it. But somewhere along the way, I realized I’d spent decades taking care of everyone else’s emergencies while quietly shelving my own life.

Starting over taught me something the dictionary missed: retirement isn’t about stopping. It’s about finally getting to decide what your days are for.

So here’s my definition.

Retirement is the moment you stop living on someone else’s schedule and start living on your own.

If you’re in this strange, wonderful, terrifying chapter too - welcome. It’s busy here. But it’s ours.