RUNAWAY

Probably when most people my age hear the word, Runaway, they think of poor, confused, teenagers who can’t seem to fit in with their peers, don’t get along with their parents and just want to be out on their own. Generally speaking, running away doesn’t work well for these teenagers because they have no money for one thing and no life skills, yet. As a Baby Boomer approaching 60, I feel I can identify with this burning urge to run away from life we are currently living. Being in the work force for way too many years is brutal in itself. Being a part of the aging Boomer work force, means we now have to deal with the new younger work force consisting of young people who have way more energy than us, have a desire to make their jobs their total life along with managing to fit in a couple of hours a night to go out with friends for dinner or drinks. I am at the point in my life when I just plain don’t want to work anymore. Heck, the Boomers are running out of time to do all the things we were going to do after the kids left. You know the empty nest syndrome. Finally getting to do all those things we never got to do in our younger carefree years. Unfortunately my husband left first and then the kids left. Starting over wasn’t an option it was a necessity. Even if you don’t need the money, which I do or I certainly wouldn’t be working, the medical insurance is a must have, especially if you want to stay healthy and alive. So after spending ten years in the travel industry and now the last ten in the financial industry, is it time to choose another industry and put in another ten years? I’m not quite sure I even have another ten years to invest in another company. Retirement is looming on the horizon, in fact I can feel it in my bones that it is near. Maybe it is best to just hang in there a few more years and wait for that magic retirement age, whatever it is—62 or 65? Because when you really look at it, retirement is basically the same as running away, isn’t it? They both mean you don’t have to answer to anyone anymore and you now have the right to do whatever you want, whenever you want and with whomever you want. Reminds me of the Hippie era. Really it’s not all that different from the desires of a teenage runaway. Maybe reaching retirement means we have come full circle. That magic day is close but yet it seems so far away as I get up each morning to go to work.