Why Not Retire At Any Age? Pt.1

And so there I was. I had made it through the tough times. I’d somehow found the courage to disregard the scars. I had pushed beyond the challenges that come with having a dying mother who loses her mind and tries to murder you…after allowing her boyfriend to have his way first. I had combated the shame of being voted most likely to succeed in high school. I’d defeated the odds that are against someone who has been abandoned and left to fend for themselves in Detroit’s unforgiving inner-city streets. I had transformed my life from that of a societal reject, homeless at the age of 17 with no one to protect or nurture my wounds or safeguard me from making new ones.

With nothing more than $80.00 in my pocket, chicken wings packed in a shoebox and the hope that someone would help me; I went to a college that that didn’t know I was coming. I just showed up and pleaded. The administration there gave me a chance and I learned how to become academically strong all the way to a master’s degree. The university was so impressed that they asked me to serve as Assistant Dean of Students; I wasn’t even 24. Boy was that the break that I needed! That one job gave me the path for my life. I decided that I would become president of a university by 31. And so I began climbing the ever-popular ladder of success. And I was on my way. I had overcome my past and I was charting a new course. But then the unthinkable happened.

I had done all that surviving only to find out that the path I was on was taking me down a dead end street. I’d gotten degreed up and followed all the “rules” for being successful in our society just to end up short-changed. I found myself unfulfilled and broke. I wasn’t feeling appreciated for my skills at work, and I stopped wanting to be there. But I had to go. I had bills, student loans, obligations, responsibilities. What was I supposed to do? Completely frustrated and emphatically disappointed, at the age of 26, I decided to retire!

That’s right, retire! I had done what society said do to get ahead, and while my experiences had yielded some merit in my life; I was a bit ticked off at the fact that I really didn’t have the life of my dreams. And what’s more is that I didn’t see things changing anytime soon. I wanted to be fully self-expressed, debt-free. I wanted to spend more time with my family, vacation, and sleep in two or three times a week, pray more, take better care of my body and go to Monday morning matinees. But that isn’t what I felt allowed to pursue. I had become hindered, stuck in a rut, and not feeling at all entitled to be free.

Then I realized that while I thought that I had been pursuing my best life all that time, the real truth was that I had bought into the self-defeating thought-mode that many of us have. I went after what was socially acceptable. It was acceptable to pursue power, profit and prestige without taking any regard to your own unique talents, dreams and passions. “Puuleeez! A young woman in her early 20’s retiring; that’s nonsense!” They would say. “That life is only for the rich, the lucky lottery winners and senior citizens!” But I didn’t care anymore what others thought. It seemed to me that the traditional notions of retirement were illogical and actually prevented the very freedom and wealth that we all could have otherwise been enjoying. So, I gave up old belief patterns that others made up and began doing things my way. This new “retirementality” that I discovered has brought an offensive amount of happiness to my life that anyone with an open mind can partake of at any age!