The Rest of My Life

The realization came to me in a two step process. One morning last week, I was listening to a pretty good compilation of bits and pieces from various motivational speeches as I drank my morning coffee. One of the speakers was berating his audience for wasting time, your most precious resource. Warren Buffet may have $74 billion more than me, but we both have exactly the same number of hours in a day.

What do I choose to do with my 24 hours? What does Warren Buffet do with his 24 hours?

After my morning exercise routine, I frequently engage in a little channel surfing while lounging on the sofa for 30 minutes or more, before fixing something for lunch. On that fateful day, I found the movie, Van Helsing, on an obscure cable channel. As I watched the hero take down a monstrous Mr. Hyde whilst simultaneously trashing the Notre Dame Cathedral, I heard the words of the speaker, “Are you lying there watching the same bad movie for the fourth time?”

“Well, yes and no, sort of,” I confessed to the universe that, while I never watched the entire movie, I have certainly seen parts of it four times or more. Shortly after this epiphany, it occurred to me that I currently have a rare opportunity, a chance to decide what to do with the rest of my life. As we become adults, the answer to the question, “What do I want to be when I grow up?” begins to answer itself as we choose a college, a career, a job, and a spouse.

Responsible or irresponsible, adults live with the consequences of their decisions.

Once in a while we are given an ultimatum by the universe, “Change directions. Now!” The last such chance presented itself after I lost my job in the recession of 1982. I decided I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life on a factory floor, so I went back to school and earned a degree in mechanical engineering. Of course, once we make one of those momentous life decisions, we have the option of veering this way or that along our chosen path, as opportunities present themselves or disappear in a puff of disappointment.

As planned, I made it to retirement. I moved to a new location where it is warmer, less expensive, and more relaxed than Washington D.C. I made it through the family emergency—and now—I get to answer the question, “What do you want to do with the rest of your life?”

It seems that health and fitness have already become an important part of my post-retirement life. I am still writing, although not every day. I need to do better. Now that I no longer have a full time job, I guess I am an investor, for real. We are planning our next big vacation. I could go on, but….

Although I don’t feel called to a delayed vocation as a vampire hunter, there is more.

For me, for you, there is more, there is so much more.