PhD Retire One with Self, One with Life

Ten Lessons Learned Along the Journey
1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-1-0983-6736-7
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet/DL/kein Kopierschutz

E-Book, Englisch, 300 Seiten

'Retire One with Self, One with Life,' is a retirement memoir, the story of the author's individual life in retirement over the past twenty years. One of the author's major purposes in writing this book was to illustrate for readers how his years in retirement became some of his best. You'll find that self-knowledge will guide you towards unexpected challenges and opportunities to continue to learn and grow, and to find deeper purpose.

Autoren/Hrsg.

PhD,

Leseproben

LESSON ONE:
LISTEN TO THE MESSAGES HIDDEN DEEP WITHIN THE HEART The Reemergence of the Authentic Self In late December of 1999, my partner Robbie and I were traveling by train with our friend David, heading from Raleigh, North Carolina to Washington DC, to celebrate the New Year and the beginning of the New Millennium. Little did I know that I would soon begin another journey, a more difficult journey, a journey inward to determine whether I should retire sooner rather than later in life. From my briefcase, I removed the yet unread afternoon mail. As I perused the different envelopes, I noticed two letters from my retirement companies, most likely reporting my recent accumulations. I opened the envelopes, read the content, and studied the graphs. The 1990s had been powerful investment years. My retirement funds had increased steadily throughout this decade, and with unimaginable financial gains. After completing some basic calculations, I knew it was true what my financial advisor lately had been suggesting to me: Finally, I had accumulated enough retirement funds to last a lifetime, even longer. Finally, after years of teaching and investing, I had the option now to retire and reap the benefits of financial independence. For many years, particularly throughout the past decade, I had planned to retire as soon as I financially could. I had enjoyed a long and basically successful academic career, but now I desired time in my remaining years to explore a new and different life. THE DIFFICULTY IN DECIDING TO RETIRE Although I financially could retire comfortably, emotionally I could not bring myself to make this decision. Something deep inside, feelings of doubt, discomfort, and unease, were preventing me from readily accepting my desired retirement as a logical and viable option. For unknown reasons, I felt as if I first had to give myself permission to retire, and at this present moment, I could not. For many subsequent months, I still did not clearly understand the reasons for my reluctance to retire. However, I knew I did not want to retire prematurely and later regret it. On the contrary, I wanted to be as logical and objectively reserved as possible in making one of the most important decisions of my life. Thus, I began to use journal writing to further explore the reasons for my retirement hesitations. THE USE OF JOURNAL WRITNG FOR SELF-DISCOVERY For many years, I had used a variety of methods to become more reflective and self-aware, more self-knowledgeable. During these introspective moments, many of my subconscious thoughts sometimes emerged on their own. They occurred naturally, “out of the blue.” During other times, they occurred after prolonged and deeper reflective thinking. I often used journal writing to capture my unconscious thoughts as they popped into my thinking and awareness, objectifying them by writing them on paper, to see and later study. I also wrote personal questions in my journal to use as prompts for events happening in my life. I often wrote answers to these questions and read them later, sometimes over and over. By asking myself select questions, writing down my uncensored answers, and studying my written responses over time, I was able to discover and understand new aspects of myself previously unexplored, a process sometimes called “writing for discovery.” Throughout the spring of 2000, I sorted and sifted through my responses to a variety of personal retirement inquiries. I began by asking myself and answering in my journal writing responses to these two basic retirement inquiries: (1) What would I be relinquishing if I were to retire, and on the other hand; (2) What would I be gaining in my life by retiring sooner rather than later in life? WHAT WOULD I BE RELINGUISHING BY RETIRING? As I wrote my responses, many benefits of my long career flowed forth, easily and naturally. A NOTEWORTHY ACADEMIC CAREER Without question, I would be leaving behind a life in academia of which I was most proud. After completing undergraduate school in 1960, I taught in one capacity or another. I taught English at the high school level for eight years. During this time, I traveled extensively abroad. I participated in two educational trips to Europe and two world trips during the summer months. For three of these years, I lived and taught in Melbourne, Australia. Upon my return to the States, I completed both my Master of Arts and Doctorate Degrees at The University of California, Berkeley. While attending Berkeley, I was employed as a Teaching Assistant. After graduation in 1970, I commenced my university-level teaching career. I quickly advanced in the university ranks, from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor in two years, and from Associate Professor to Full Professor in the following four. First, I was appointed an Assistant Professor at The University of Delaware for two years, before being appointed and promoted to Associate Professor at Penn State University. Then, the following year, I was offered a position as Department Chair at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where I was appointed Full Professor with tenure four years later, in 1977. Thus, I became a professor at one of the top-tier academic institutions in our country. For the following twenty-eight years, I remained a Professor of Curriculum and Instruction in the School of Education, where I specialized in the teaching of courses in Literacy and English Education. I also taught two graduate seminars, both focused on teaching doctoral students about different aspects of educational research, content designed to assist them in the completion of their doctoral proposals and dissertations. For a total of forty-one years, I had invested much time and effort in studying, training, and advancing myself in academia. It seemed frivolous, even silly at times, for me now to disregard these personal educational investments and accomplishments, to toss them aside, and to retire relatively early just because financially I finally could. Moreover, I would be bringing my present professional and academic life as I knew it to a complete end, and with this finality and choice would come the surrendering of a series of other career-related benefits. A PLEASANT WORKSPACE I would be leaving behind a pleasant workspace and environment. Since the first days of my career at Carolina, I was assigned a spacious office with multiple windows on the top floor of Peabody Hall. From my office windows, I had a direct view to my right of the historic Carolina Inn with its imposing colonial architecture. To my left, I could see the busy intersection of Cameron and Columbia Streets, all just a few blocks from Franklin Street and downtown Chapel Hill. I felt honored to be a faculty member at such a prestigious university and a resident of Chapel Hill, a lovely campus town, often devotedly referred to by alumni as “The Southern Part of Heaven.” A MULTIFACETED CAREER I would be ending my teaching career and daily contact with students. I loved the multifaceted nature of my work, from teaching and advising exceptionally bright students to directing their theses and dissertations, from reading and writing scholarly articles to attending conferences and presenting papers. It would not be easy to say goodbye to my professional roles and the status and pride that came with the completion of each. A STRONG SOCIAL NETWORK I would be leaving behind most of my social network. In my office suite, I looked forward to personal and professional conversations with many of my colleagues. We often covered topics ranging from world news to sports events and The Tar Heels, from campus activities to university and in-house politics. I also valued my friendships with faculty members in other disciplines and program areas within the School of Education, university-wide, and from other local and national universities. LIFELONG LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES Through my academic career, I experienced many opportunities to become and remain a lifelong learner. One activity I enjoyed immensely was attending many and varied university-sponsored lectures. At Carolina, it seemed as if there were a lecture of interest every day and evening somewhere on campus. While attending these lectures, I often met and mingled with numerous and renowned speakers, from noted international scholars and media personnel to accomplished artists and politicians. A DAILY WORK STRUCTURE AND PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY I would be ending my daily work structure. I lived only a few blocks from campus in a townhouse in the historic district. Most days, I walked to campus, taught a class, attended meetings, visited a school to observe a teaching intern, went to lunch with a colleague, held office hours, and exercised late afternoons at a local gym. In the evening, I either attended a social event, a university function, taught an evening class, or worked at home. Indeed, my academic work and position at Carolina reinforced my sense of place and belonging which, in turn, often resulted in strong feelings of self-worth. Thus, by retiring, I would be relinquishing more than a structure to my life that work provided. I would also be ending my professional identity. A...