There’s this theory going around in online articles that Boomers “retire forward” and Gen-Xers “retire backward.” That is, Boomers hope to do in retirement all the things that they’ve always wished they could do but didn’t have the time, money, and/or opportunity earlier in their lives. It’s a gamble of sorts, because there’s the possibility that they won’t ultimately like the lifestyle and activities that they’ve chosen for their golden years. Gen-Xers, on the other hand, hope to do in retirement all the things they loved when they were younger but had to give up when “real life” came calling. They want to get the band back together, or reengage in sports that they enjoyed, or start collecting toys from their childhoods, etc. I mentioned this to my husband and remarked that I thought we were more Boomerlike in our expectations.
But then I was looking out the kitchen window yesterday, marveling at the beautiful shapes of the goldenrods in the backyard, and I felt a sudden urge to go outside and draw them. That’s something I would have done as a child, and I thought to myself, “I can’t wait until I retire and have nothing better to do than pursue whatever creative idea passes through my mind.”
And then it hit me: my goal for retirement actually is to recreate that time from my youth when I could freely pursue my favorite pastimes. I want to play piano and write and sketch and walk and think and just enjoy existing, and I’d particularly like to do that at a lake house. My desire for a lake house itself hearkens back to the period of my childhood when my grandparents owned a cottage on a lake. Even my current obsession with The New Yorker cartoons stems from that era.
OMG, I am so trying to retire backward!