Retirement - It's Over

I just took another box of stuff out of my office and put it in my car.  I could take hours looking at all of this memorabilia, but since I’m retiring, I need to get it out of here pretty quick.  It’s a 21-year accumulation.  Early next week, my replacement will take over this little 10 x 10 piece of heaven.  It’s weird.  It kind of feels like I’m cleaning out a relative’s house after they passed away, except I’m the dead person who’s doing the cleaning. 

And just like dealing with a departed relative’s belongings, you have to purge through your own stuff.  I found some old photos. They hit you the hardest.  “Holy crap!  Look at all that hair!  That’s when I was still working out!”  Now the hair is thinner, and the waistline is thicker. 

Then I looked at a couple of matchbooks from some bar in Chicago.  They remind me how glad I am there weren’t any camera phones back then. 

I filled up a small cardboard box with gewgaws from my desk. A little clock that stopped working years ago, a crystal replica of a football trophy given to me from my best friend, and a statue of a golfing elf from my former employer. Valuable stuff.

Time to take the pictures off the wall.  I had so many football and golf prints that my office looked like a mini sports bar.  Now, I feel like a little bit of me is vanishing each time I take one down. That’s because it is. A few drawings from my granddaughter removed, and now the office is looking sanitary, generic. 

When the last photograph from my desk is properly boxed up,

all signs of my life have gone.  Now it’s just 4 walls, a desk, a credenza, and a file cabinet. Soon enough, it will be filled with another's life momentous.  The walls will once again hear laughter, tears, plotting and planning, along with talks about football and children. It just won’t be mine.

I’m glad to be retiring, I am.  I’ve worked and saved 45 years to get to this point.  It’s the right time. But I would be lying if I didn’t tell you I’m not feeling some sadness.  I liked my job, and I loved the people.  Some of the best and worst moments of my life were shared here.

I wiped my desk down, cleaned the computer screen, and checked the drawers again. All good.  Time to go.

Then I turned and walked out the door, but not before looking back one last time - and fighting the urge to put Vaseline on everyone’s phone earpiece. Who says I’m not sentimental?

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