Retirement is a Transitioning Not an Ending

by Oreen Scott
(Oaxaca, Mexico)

I'm a Canadian currently living in Oaxaca, Mexico.

On July 31, 2008, I left behind the company, where I was employed for twenty-two years, and I haven't looked back. I was sixty at the time, and it was a planned retirement.

I didn't think I was retiring so much as changing professions. My idea was to travel the world, live out of a suitcase, and pick-up teaching gigs from time to time.

I worked very hard, over a two-year period, to implement my plan. I studied through a Faculty of Education Extension department and received a Canadian Teaching English as a Second Language (CTESL) certification. At the same time, I volunteered, one evening a week, as a teaching assistant. I also spend my Sunday afternoons tutoring a Korean pharmacist looking to attain a Canadian license.

It isn't easy selling everything you've accumulated over forty years or so, I had a house to sell, furniture to dispose of, pets to find homes for. It was a long process.

All of this was done while working full-time.

I stretched my brain as far as it would go, and I'm happy to tell you that I completed my certification, and attained a 4.0 average.

If your in the third age of your life and thinking about making radical changes, you can do it.

Although I retired July 31, and flew to the west coast of Canada the next day, for a month long visit with family, by the evening of August 1 was working again. I Tutored a Korean girl in preparation for her debut into the Canadian school system.

After my month on the west coast of Canada, I flew to Albuquerque New Mexico, rented a car, and drove around the state visiting various pueblos.

I dropped the rental car off in El Paso Texas, took a bus across the border through Juarez to the city of Chihuahua. I started teaching in Chihuahua on September 6.

I've been travelling and working ever since, and I've learned some things.

Most of my adult life, I've dreamed of living out of a suitcase, now that I've tried it, I know that for me, it doesn't work. I need a home base. For now, I'm in Oaxaca, Mexico. I pay very little rent for a comfortable, furnished apartment. I travel a lot, and I work when I want.

If you'd like to learn more about my retirement, please Google my blog, Diary of a Third Age Woman.

http://thirdagewoman.blogspot.com

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