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CHUCK MALLOY In Idaho |
Retirement sucks.
I have tried retirement on for size since leaving the Idaho Statesman two months ago and it truly sucks. I’ve tried saying, “I’m retired,†for the last couple of weeks, but I cringe at the thought. So I’m not going to do it. I’m 63 years old, which may be too old to hold a job or be hired anywhere. But I don’t look or feel old, and I’m not going to act old.
Every now and then, I see stories about people who retire and end up dead within a short time. When my older brother was in his late 50s, he talked glowingly about retirement and some of the things he wanted to do. When he turned 62, he could hardly wait to begin his new chapter of life; he was planning to spend his golden years in New Mexico. Just before moving there, he was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer and died just after his 64th birthday. I’m not suggesting that retirement killed him. But he spent so much time looking forward to it and he had so little time to enjoy it. I’m as healthy as a horse and could enjoy retirement if I wanted; I just don’t want it.
For me, I want to explore some new challenges while tackling some old ones. I do volunteer work with the American Diabetes Association, which has the most honorable of missions – to find a cure for this deadly disease. I’d also like to dabble in an area in which I am familiar, which is Idaho politics. I still have opinions on what I see and read in the news and I’d like to use this forum for expressing my thoughts.
The difference between what I’m doing with Ridenbaugh Press and working for a newspaper is I will not be tied to deadlines and will not have to worry about satisfying the whims of cranky desk editors. I can do what I want, when I want and write pretty much how I want.
You know, retirement doesn’t suck so much after all.
