Transitions

What is life other than a continual series of transitions? Four years ago, we were preparing to move from Toronto to Kingston. When we thought of the possibility back then, the transition made a lot of sense. And to a great extent, we met the goals for that move. We did it to provide our daughter with a safer environment to grow up in. And seeing her develop in maturity, we know we did the right thing. The move was a no-brainer for us.

Moving Sylvana's mother and sister to Kingston was also challenging, but again, made a lot of sense. As they age and face increased care needs, having Sylvana nearby to advocate on their behalf is vital to their well-being.

But other transitions are more difficult. Finding software development work in Kingston hasn't been easy. I.T. is simply not a good career choice for those of us over fifty. I'm still an active computer geek, and all my skills could be put to use. But I just can't bear having to report to someone thirty years younger than me. My last job in Kingston was intolerable due to the working conditions, and I quickly reached that "Take this job and shove it!" moment.

So now I've reached the point where I simply have to consider myself "retired". This is not an easy transition for me, and it's going to take me some time to wrap my mind around the idea. What will I do? What challenges await me?

One thing I need to do is make a break from my professional past. It's been almost eleven years since the staffing shuffle that moved me out of the iSeries group at the IBM Toronto Lab, but I still follow some iSeries related groups on-line. There's just no point to that anymore. I need to burn some bridges, and that's a good place to start. In addition, I've already deleted my LinkedIn account. I need to look forward to the future, and not dwell on my past professional life.

What's next? As a retirement gift to myself, I bought a new tenor ukulele, and once I get a new set of strings, I hope to explore the possibilities of low-G ukulele tuning. But that's just a start!

Cheers! Hans