“I open at the close”
Inscription from the snitch Harry Potter caught in his first Quidditch match.
I’ve decided to retire from nursing and travel the country with my partner, Tina. There are two common questions people ask me about retirement. Here are the questions and my thoughts
Question #1 “Where are you going to settle?”
I’m going to settle in the seat of my 2014 Ford Edge LTD.
I’ve never been settled. I’m 64 at this moment. I’ve lived in eight states, six of them before I was 15. No, I was not a military kid. I was the preacher’s kid. I got along well with military kids. We had a lot in common. We had a lot of fun together. We got into a lot of trouble together. I was very good at leaving and burning bridges as a child. Learned to “armor up” to get by. I also learned that people are the same everywhere I go.
I won’t ever settle for anything. I deserve the best the world has to offer me. I plan to find out what that is now that I won’t be chasing a living. Tina and I, we learned as kids how to live lean and still have fun. We’ve got our National Parks pass. We’ve started learning how to live out of our 2014 Ford edge if need be. We’ve decided we’ll never be “house poor” again.
I’m going to settle into seeing this world. I’ll get dirt on the back of my car I can write in. I’ll live in more states and more places. I’ll meet more people. I’ll experience more adventures of all kinds. I’ll learn more about myself, about Tina, and about us. I’ll learn more about everything I can. I am a curious creature by nature.
Question #2 “What do you want to finish before you retire?”
Nothing. Not a damn thing.
I’ve never take a job that I can finish. That’s because whenever I take on position, I am confident I can do the work. Work is way more than the tasks in the job description. Typically doing the tasks is straight forward. And there is always another order, or client assessment, or patient admission to complete.
I am drawn into the relationships between people that make the tasks hard or easy to accomplish. Developing relationships between people that enable work to be easy is work that is never done.
My favorite experience in relationship developing was in the ICU. When medications were missing or a new order was stat, I’d call pharmacy to get them replaced. I found that I would often get my meds quickly while other nurses waited. One day a tech came to the unit, dropped the med on the cart and said, “This med is for Janice.” One of my coworkers asked how the tech knew me.
All I did was consistently tell the techs who I was and ask their names. I thanked them by name at the end of the call. If they brought a stat by foot, I’d call the tech by name and thank them.
In a job, I am paid to accomplish tasks. Relationships are the key to accomplishing tasks. The relationship comes first.
So what will retirement be for me?
I will always be curious about everything and everyone around me. I will build on the relationships I have and look for new ones every day.
Come with me on this journey. Tell me a story about your favorite place in the world. When I get there, I’ll be able to think about your story and tell you mine.
