Is retirement a retreat or a renaissance?
Retirement: retreat, giving up work, withdrawal, solitude, obscurity
Renaissance: rebirth, new start, revitalisation, new beginning
Before I retired I investigated the word 'retirement'. I sought the answer only to find it described by a list of words designed to send even the most 'glass half full' person in search of the nearest gas oven. 'Loneliness, obscurity, solitude, withdrawal, ebbing' were among the wholly negative descriptions of what this state promised. And there I'd been for all those years telling people that retirement is a time of opportunity and enjoyment. Here was I on the brink of retirement and facing the awful prospect of discovering that a lifetime of belief would turn out not to be true.
But I was determined to wring out as much enjoyment as I could from this new chapter. I liked the idea of growing old disgracefully but knew I lacked the courage to do it - or did I?
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