My Way

I talk a lot on this blog about how messy my transition to retirement is. I was really good at following the FIRE principles of saving and investing but at some point I missed the lesson on how to live life after financial independence.

I do feel like I’ve made some progress over the last year toward that transition. I retired, then unretired, I moved to Boone, NC and now I am about to take a leave of absence to walk the Camino de Santiago. Walking the Camino will be a vacation like no other vacation for me. One, I won’t be running around being a tourist but slow traveling across Spain. Absorbing the culture and social aspect of the pilgrimage. Two, I have never considered taking a leave of absence from work. I suppose I always thought only the rich do that kind of thing.

It would only be right if I shared our reason for walking the Camino. See my late father-in-law walked the Camino twice. It made such a huge impact on him that as his mind was slipping that was all he could talk about. You really felt the joy it brought him. The first weekend in May we are spreading his ashes and then we’ll be leaving for Europe to embark on our own Camino. It’s a very fitting way to honor him and memorialize his life. I hope I come back with a tenth of the love he had for it. That would be a gift.

As I continue to try to figure out this transition to retirement, I hope I discover my passion and that thing that brings me joy. I think that’s the beauty of this community of like-minded people, we share our struggles and our ideas so that the next person understands it’s a process. It’s definitely not a destination but a journey of self-discovery. A journey that is teaching me to be gentle with myself. A journey that’s not perfect. But it’s my camino… my path, my way. To my fellow traveler, ‘buen camino.’