Ready to Jump into Retirement? 3 Ways My Silly Song can Help You!

A sunny day, saddle shoes, a group of bubbly kids on a school playground- do you remember jumping rope during recess? Two kids twirled the long clothesline rope as the girl who was poised and ready to jump in held her arms chest high and bobbed to the beat of the swishing rope. As she bounced into place and her pigtails swayed, we all started to chant:

Billy and Susie sittin’ in a tree,
K-I-S-S-I-N-G!
First comes love,
Then comes marriage,
Then comes Susie pushing the baby carriage.

If you remember that skipping rhyme, then you are like me and we both acquired our roadmap for life in the third grade. Like the directions on a GPS, we started on our journey with a boyfriend and K-I-S-S-I-N-G. At our first stop we found Love, a little farther on the road of life we entered Marriage, and far off on the horizon we could see the Baby Carriage. The road was straight, wide open, no chance we could get lost.

And that’s how life unfolded for me. What about you? I enjoyed it all except the road trip went by too fast. The Baby Carriage was left behind miles ago. What’s next? The grade school jumping jingle didn’t plot the land beyond parenthood. The song ended and I kept on rolling down the road.

And that’s what you and I are going to explore together in my blog. What is this uncharted area on our life road map called R-E-T-I-R-E-M-E-N-T? We didn’t sing about the R word on the playground.

We want to know:

1. Will this new time of life be scary or exhilarating?

2. Should we downsize, upcycle, try new experiences or age in place?

3. Will we still be K-I-S-S-I-N-G?

As we traveled through the years we answered to Mom or Dad, Boss or Board Chairwoman, even Hon. But what will our new titles be now? We certainly don’t want to be called old. We want our leap into retirement to be thrilling. We want to thrive!

And we also wonder- without our working life roles and routines, how do we relate to the pal we first met in the tree? He’s bald now, or she’s gray, can we connect again? Can we find new experiences to share?

You and I, the eager kids on the playground, have made it to the penultimate chapter of our lives. Is this a time for freedom or fear? Will we embrace new experiences and play again with joy on a sunny day, or will we sit on our front porch and watch others drive down the road of life? Or will we do both? Our rhyme from our recess days got us this far, didn’t it? It’s time to write the next verse to the skipping song and jump into retirement!