What I won't miss

I have been thinking about things that I won't miss about working. I came up with three specific areas:

1. Printers- I have a very complicated relationship with printers. When I worked in a large agency, I only needed to befriend the human who was in charge of the copy machine and any copying or printing issue was solved by this human. During the past 4 years, I have been that human who needs to manage 2 very needy printers. Just when I think everything is solved as far as being aligned, connected or fed ink, a new printer problem arises. In retirement, I probably won't have much need to print which is just okay with me.

   
   

2. Traffic - I know - I live in Fargo, ND so how bad can the traffic be on any given day. Any Fargonian will agree that 7:48 am or 5:08pm traffic is really challenging. For about 9 years of my career, I experienced this traffic, and I found myself to be simmering on the brick of road rage which is very uncharacteristic for me. Now days, I only occasionally need to drive during these time periods, and it continues to be a challenge. In retirement, I will hopefully completely avoid insane small city traffic.

3. Emails/Texting- During the first 20 years of my career, emails were nonexistent. We completed correspondence through mail, phone or in person. Emails have been wonderful for efficient communication but overwhelming at times. It is hard not to feel an urgency to answer an email even if it is after business hours or late at night. Just the sound of an email being delivered to the phone, can cause a negative emotion. I have never been good at disciplining myself with putting up boundaries about reading or responding to emails. Hopefully, in retirement emails will only be about fun things like scheduling a book club meeting.

18 Wednesdays