On Retiring, Part 2: How 

Part 1: Why 

Several weeks ago, when my decision to retire was made official, I posted my reasons for making that decision. Welp, now it’s happened. As of 5 pm last Friday, I am retired and no longer an appointed member of the Bible faculty at BJU. 

My colleague in a neighboring office, who teaches Biblical Counseling, had asked a few days earlier how I was doing as The Event approached. I told him that I wasn’t sad or nervous; the word I gave him was “contemplative.” It’s natural to think back over the career—I was a full-time employee for 44 years, and a teaching GA for 5 years before that—and just reminisce a little. It’s good to look back. I’ve found that the contemplation leads to thankfulness, and that the thankfulness leads to peace. 

It’s all good. 

Even in these first few days I’ve noticed some other changes in my thinking. I thought I’d share how the days have gone and thereby note those changes. 

This will be the only issue of my Retirement Journal: take comfort in that. :-) 

On Friday Commencement ended a bit before 4pm, about an hour before my official retirement. I walked around the campus for a bit, greeting my former students and their parents, and rejoicing with them over their academic success. Then I turned in my regalia before 5. (As is customary, I kept the tassel—black for PhD—figuring it would make a better ornament than fuzzy dice). Dropped by a reception for the graduating online students. The Official Retirement at 5 happened while I was there, so I didn’t even notice it. 

Walked home (I hadn’t driven onto campus, since I knew there wouldn’t be any place to park), greeted my wife, and announced that I was going to change into my “retirement outfit.” Jeans and long-sleeved black tee. In the process I decided to take my watch off; why would I need a watch? There are clocks around the house and in the cars, and there’s always my phone for backup. I used to make fun of my students for not wearing watches—I could twist my left forearm and look at my watch in one-fifth the time it took for them to pull out their phones and look at them—but now, it seems, I’ve adopted their inefficient ways. 

I’d been avoiding dairy all week so I wouldn’t be clearing my throat when reading student names during the Commencement ceremony, but now all that was over, so I did the logical thing: I made myself a big ol’ decaf latte with an impressive layer of crema. Very refreshing. 

Now what? Let’s do the daily crossword puzzle, plus the one I didn’t have time to get to yesterday. 

I’m surprised at how quickly my thinking changed from time management mode—makin’ a list, checkin’ it 9 or 10 times, getting’ it done, all day every day—to a sense of utter flexibility. Still have things to do, and I intend to add things along the way (see Part 1), but now I have pretty much unlimited flexibility as to when I do them. That’s a major mental reset. 

Men’s prayer breakfast at church 7.30 Saturday morning. Went, of course, but hung around for further fellowship afterwards, because I had no commitments until after 2pm, so no sense of needing to Finish This Conversation and Get on to the Next Thing. Ask questions, and listen for as long as my brother wants to talk. Drive home, letting people cut in front of me, and obeying the speed limit, and stopping for yellow lights. 

This is really, really weird. 

I like it. 

Sit down with the to-do list and pick 3 priorities for the coming week: 

• Get the Medicare / Medigap process started. (We have some time on that.) 

• Condense and pack up the office. 

• Order a laptop to replace the one I’ll be turning in at the end of the summer; I’ll need some time to set it up, install software that won’t be provided by the university anymore, and transfer stuff over. I intend to keep pretty much all my academic records in electronic form in case issues come up down the road that I need verification for. 

“Up down.” That’s funny. 

As well as a few end-of-year academic things: 

• Upload the commentary that my students wrote in Romans class, so they can add it to their portfolios if they want to; 

• End-of-year program assessments and division report; 

• Polished versions of a couple of division processes for the Next Guy. Maybe this week, maybe later. 

And yeah, faculty are being paid this week after Commencement. 

So a plan is in place, and we’ll adjust as needed. 

This is fun. 

Photo by Stefan Steinbauer on Unsplash