Remembering Working for a Living

It's rare that I think about my working past. There have been events that remind me of some of the people that I once worked with, but not often.

I have had a few text message conversations with former coworkers and met up with a couple of them to watch a game or just catch up with each other.

Having worked through several other people's retirement, I know that my former colleagues have little reason or occasion to remember me in their daily routines.

However, yesterday I received a picture of a flight progress strip and a note that it made a controller think of me. It made me smile.

A week from tonight is a retirement party for the four of us that retired at the beginning of the year. I'm kind of looking forward to it. There was a time when I wasn't sure that I would even attend and I would be content to just get on with life. But after having heard from some former colleagues  (and being threatened by one colleague's spouse) I'm actually looking forward to it.

I suppose that most of it will be the polite "How's it going?" "Do you miss it?" Aren't you bored?" "I'm so jealous!" kind of small talk. But I think that there will also be some good times and good memories. I know that there will be several retired controllers that will be there and I'm looking forward to seeing them.

At four months and five days, I still consider myself to be an apprentice retiree. I'm not sure of what it takes to get checked out as a journeyman retiree, but I'll continue to work on it.

I managed to get to another ballgame last night and have a few short trips planned for the coming months. If making plans to stay busy is a part of journeyman certification, I may take a long time. Mostly, I'm happy to take things a day at a time...and occasionally look back and remember.

Be well,
John  <><