I Wanna Be Vanna!

December 2, 2010 Barbara Button
Tags: goals, mid-life attitude, Middle Age, Motivation, retirement, Vanna White

Actually … not really.  I just want her job!  How much fun must she have on Wheel of Fortune?  All she has to do -(everyday!) is wear great dresses, get made-up professionally and turn over letters.  I CAN DO IT!  YES I CAN!  Oh … and clap!

Let’s think – who else has a great job?  How ’bout … ummmmm …

or ….

maybe …. WAIT A MINUTE!  Are there NO good jobs?  Ah, Except for Vanna’s of course! 

Maybe I’m just tired of working for a living.  When you get to be our age – you’ve spent more than HALF of your life reporting for work everyday and having to squeeze the rest of your living into the time that’s left over.  Which based on your job and your work ethic may not be much.  And for me lately – SURE isn’t enough!   I’m not condoning retiring at an early age (or even a late one)  I’m not slowing down at all … I’m just suggesting maybe it is important to do what you enjoy now - and if not – at least look forward to a time when you can!  And that time can be called retirement! 

Right now, for me, the ONLY job I would absolutely LOVE … would be to be a writer.  A writer … or a reader!  I can totally see/hear myself reading audio books.  I’ve just recently started to listen to them in the car during my new commute (hour each way), and I really get into them.  I’m a frustrated actress anyway … and got an A in oral interpretation in college.  Doesn’t that qualify me?  As a Sophomore, I read out loud to a standing ovation, my favorite T.S. Eliot …

I grow old … I grow old … I shall wear the bottoms of trousers rolled.  Do I dare to eat a peach … shall I part my hair behind … I shall wear white flannel trousers and walk upon the beach, and hear the mermaids singing each to each.  I do not think that they shall sing to me.

Or something like that. 

Anyway … I can totally see myself sitting on the porch of a shuttered old white clapboard house on a white sand duned beach with sea grass and sand pipers and very few people – through all the seasons.  Of course I’d have a G&T in a white wicker chair, my lap top balanced on my knee and my husband close by.  What about you?  What’s your dream?

My best friend flew up with her family to celebrate Thanksgiving with me  and somehow we ended up talking about retiring.  I started to read her the riot act about NOT doing the predictable … when she said to me,  “I have no intention of bustin’ my but to pay off a small house so I can be mortgage free and sit around in it waiting to die.  I’m looking forward to not working so I can do something different!’  Then my imagination started to go wild.  The possibilities opened up a whole new world/life to look forward to.  Why not:

•   Buy a trailer and drive around the US, sell your house, get a PO box and have no permanent address for a few years while you travel,
• go abroad and roam,
• volunteer out West or in a 3rd world country for a cause that makes your heart swell,
•  take up a sport or hobby you never had time for and do it 110% …
• write a book! 

The point is … just don’t wait to die after you retire by “making do.”  SHAKE IT UP!  Look forward to the days you don’t have to devote the majority of your waking hours to something other than enjoying yourself.  Look forward to the days when you can CHOOSE what you do with your time.  And then choose to make them full and fun.  And, no matter if they are 10 or 20 or 30 years more away … just remember – this life isn’t the last life. There’s one waiting for you AFTER your job – and it is your choice how meaningful and active you make it. 

Mine of course is going to be filled with great dresses, lots of make-up and if I’m lucky … a wheel of fortune!

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