I recently attended the retirement party of a long-time family friend. It was full of his friends from various areas of his life as well as many co-workers.
At one point, he pulled me aside and said,
“This feels so weird, like attending my own funeral. So many of these people I’m never going to see again.”
Several times throughout the evening, he said things over the microphone begging people to keep spending time with him in his retirement. He was so worried that he wouldn’t be able to maintain his social life after he retired.
I’m not really sure what the lesson here is, but it just really struck a chord with me. I don’t know why, but it made me sad.
Happy for him, of course, both for his successful career and also his plethora of friends. But the extent to which he was worried about losing them all really stuck out to me.
Was it just a general anxiety of transitioning into this new stage of life? What was driving that fear?
I’m not sure I can figure out a good answer here. And maybe I never will unless I retire in the same fashion.
I just hope he continues seeing all of his friends and everything works out.