Chapter Next, Year One: A Review of Retirement

My last day of work as a federal employee was just over a year ago, Oct. 1, to be exact.  

It was a memorable last day; kind of perfect, really.  

Some of my favorite legal colleagues clapped me out as I turned in my security badge and then walked across the renowned Central Intelligence Agency seal.  I paused to acknowledge the memorial stars carved into the marble wall recognizing fellow employees that died while serving the country and didn’t get to experience a retirement with people clapping. 

Exiting the Headquarters doors, I stepped out into a glorious, blue sky, 79 degree day.  I changed into my biking clothes and rode out of the compound and then down to the C&O Canal Towpath Trail along the Potomac River for a nifty 35 mile afternoon ride.  Later that night, my wife and I celebrated with a seafood dinner and then went to the circus, because why not?  Cirque de Soleil  – weird and amazing.  

Retirement Regrets? I can’t say that every day in my first year away from 9-5 work has been as equally memorable as that last day, but it’s been a great year.  Any regrets about leaving?  No. I had done everything I wanted to do at my work.  The opportunity to take an unreduced FERS retirement a few years early came at just the right time. 

Perhaps the only moment I felt a little demoralized about leaving work was about 3 months later, on Jan. 2, when I knew everybody would be getting back from the holidays and telling stories at work and I was at home and would not be there to share in the fun.  

That feeling passed quickly because a few days later I was driving along the Florida and Georgia coast, visiting National Park sites.  And a few weeks after that, I was fleeing the DC area snow and ice to spend two weeks speaking Spanish in Guatemala.  No, I did not miss working every day.  

Besides escaping to Florida and Guatemala, what did I actually do this first year? 

Earning Money. Well, at first I spent some time looking for part-time work. I did not feel like I had to replace my salary, but I wanted to be occupied doing something in the world. Not to mention that extra money is never not nice to have.

I thought mediation might be a good option, so in my second week of retirement, I took a weeklong mediator certification class.  Even though I got bit by a dog on the last day, it was a worthwhile week.

Then, after going through a half dozen observations and co-mediations, I got certified by the State of Virginia to perform mediations for the state court system. I did my first one in August and got paid $65 for a little over an hour of work.¹ Since I paid over $2000 for the training and co-mediations, I should break evenMultiple mediators during my training mentioned to me 'well, you're not going to get rich doing this.' sometime in 2029!

While my mediation training proceeded, I spent quite a few hours looking for various other types of jobs — EEO investigations, research/writing sorts of jobs, and lots of AI related work which I’m glad didn’t work out. Why help train our future robot overlords?

At one point, I had an offer to provide online retirement seminar presentations but then I got ghosted by the company. Disappointing.  

In May, I went to a colleague’s retirement ceremony and sat next to my first supervisor, from way back in 2001. We chatted, and he mentioned a graduate school in DC was looking for a national security law adjunct professor.

Que suerte! Teaching, especially in the national security field, was the kind of job I’d wanted all along but despite some attempts to reach out to schools, hadn’t seen a path into. And then suddenly, there it was.

I’m now halfway through the semester and have enjoyed teaching and interacting with my students even more than I thought I would. It’s taken a ton of time, but I like it. Lesson: go to your colleagues’ retirement ceremonies.

Everything Else. There’s a classic Hugh Grant line from About A Boy where his blithe character surmises: “It’s amazing how the day fills up, and I often wonder, to be absolutely honest, if I’d ever have time for a job; how do people cram them in?”

Sometimes I wonder the same. Every day I’m prepping for my next class in national security law or ESL, writing articles, shopping or cooking, studying languages, re-negotiating our auto insurance, exercising, planning a trip, catching up on this or that, etc. How did I cram in a full time job?

Here’s more of what I did:

Travel. Two weeks in Guatemala; three weeks in Spain and the Balkans; Vegas, Death Valley and Grand Canyon; and four days in London last week for a quick anniversary trip.  Not to mention several smaller quick trips to West Virginia, visiting my brothers in Kentucky and Texas, Boston to see a ballgame, a few days in Williamsburg, and next month, celebrating Ms. Anysecondnow’s birthday in St. Augustine.  

And so much more:

Several dozen pleasurable lunches and dinners with friends and family. Played pinball with several of those friends.

Donated blood 4 times.

Started studying French.

Started doing pro bono legal work with Legal Services of Northern Virginia.

Rented a stick-shift convertible Miata for a few days.

Engaged in deep guy conversations while watching three Nationals ballgames with three different buddies.

Rode my bike all over the DC area. And got to do six bicycle races/events: 64 miles at Agony in the Alleghanies in Covington, VA; 70 miles in the “friendliest staffed event I’ve ever seen” Mountain Mama ride in Monterey, VA; 103 miles and 8K feet in the epic Civil War Century in Thurmont MD and Gettysburg, PA; 100 miles in mostly flat MD with a bunch of Catholic clergy in “Ride for Vocations; 101 miles and over 11K feet of climbing with a dozen other masochists in “KillBill” right here in not-flat-at-all northern Virginia; and just this weekend, 62 not very hard miles in the Great Pumpkin Ride.² 

Visited my Mom regularly.

Taught at least 50 weekly English classes to immigrants.

Saw Hamilton in London.

Read 72 books.³ I’m finishing Jane Eyre right now. Marvelous.

Watched nearly 100 movies. (Hmm, this seems like a lot.) But very little TV.

And, finally, started this AnySecondNow website. I’ve written 32 website posts (including this one).

What’s Next? I feel pretty lucky. That’s a fun and fulfilling list above. Looking ahead, I think I mostly want to continue and even do more — more teaching, more volunteering, more time with friends and family, more traveling (okay, maybe not more of that, I think I’m already doing plenty).

I can think of other things I’d add: I’d like to publish more freelance articles and do something with a movie screenplay I wrote over ten years ago, etc., etc.

The thing is, there’s always more. But there can sometimes be nothing much at all.

I’m going to make sure I spend some a little time, once in a while, on doing things that don’t make a list, doing nothing, doing something, feeling happy to be alive.

1. In case you’re wondering, it was a landlord-tenant dispute over the security deposit. The renters wanted the whole deposit back and the landlord was only willing to give them part of it. They sued the landlord. The mediation was unsuccessful, so they went back to court and the tenants lost.
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2. These don’t include numerous other fun and epic rides, mountain biking in Guatemala, the SkyMass loop along Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park, and many other group rides with friends.
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3. I should note that while this amount of books is more than I would usually read in a 12 month period, it’s not a huge jump. I like reading enough that through the years, I have usually read between 50-60 books in a year. ↩︎