Choices, choices!

It’s been longer than I’d like to admit since I wrote on my blog. We are all creatures of habit, and once we establish a habit or get out of a habit, it’s very hard to break a pattern, wouldn’t you agree?

In August, I went back to work part-time. I am teaching two sections of French at the local university. With the number of hours I am required to be on campus plus the number of hours I spend in preparation for class, I no longer have the luxury of long expanses of time in which to ruminate, cogitate, reflect and write on what it means to be a retiree. I miss that luxury, but I keep telling myself that this is only a brief return to the world of work, and that soon enough, I will be back to my preferred schedule which means lots of time to read and write and study the craft of writing.

The subject of this blog is retirement. For more and more of us, not only is the retirement age moving upward, but the desire and / or need to increase our monthly income is causing us to wonder if we shouldn’t work a few more years, add a few more dollars to our social security benefits and save a few more dollars for our inevitable retirement home expenses.

I was offered a position that I thought I could handle without too much stress. In fact, it has been a pleasure to return to the classroom. I get a real kick out of teaching French and of seeing the light bulb go on when a student experiences an “aha” moment, and of also seeing them find out what fun it is to express oneself in another language. Recently, the lesson focused on expressions of surprise or disappointment. I loved it when they wanted to keep repeating idiomatic expressions such as “chapeau!” or “mince!” Literally, “chapeau” means “hat” and “mince” means “thin.” This led us into a great discussion of word origins and colloquial language, one of the many hidden benefits and joys of language study.

Another anecdote about going back to work. I haven't been in the classroom for a few years and having easy access to instructional technology has been both fun and a challenge. My students laugh at me (lovingly, I think) when I accidentally use words like "typewriter" instead of "keyboard" or when I can't find the correct drop-down menu to change the size of the screen we are viewing. I tell them it's just another example of "life-long learning."

I am definitely getting rewards, both tangible and intangible, for this decision to go back to work, but I am also very aware of the things I am giving up-- one more example of how everything in life boils down to choices. Choosing to do one thing means you are choosing to not do something else. I take decisions and choices very seriously. When I was young, I just went where life led me, taking whatever opportunities popped up for me. In my adult life, I have probably been too serious about this issue of making choices. I want to live my life deliberately and to know that for every decision I make, I have good justification. The gifts of life and time are too precious to squander. I have friends who get annoyed at my seriousness of purpose. I even annoy myself sometimes.

In reality, life is a combination of choices and just plain old-fashioned luck—whether it be of the good or bad kind. No matter how hard we try to make good decisions, we can never fully see into the future and some of our best decisions can turn out to be our worst mistakes. But, we take these events and learn from them. Right?