Kai Repsholdt, a resident at Arizona retirement community Grandview Terrace, often recounts his father’s favorite saying: the first half of your life you train for your life’s work; the second half you do your life’s work; the third half you do what you want.
Like Repsholdt, all staff members and residents in our Arizona retirement communities know that learning doesn’t end after leaving the office – learning is a lifelong process that brings texture and color to an otherwise beige existence, bringing you closer to your passions and helping you accomplish your life’s work. Personal and professional responsibilities often prohibit full-time employees from having the time or ability to follow pursue their interests. With its flexible schedule, retirement is the ideal time to actively teach, learn, and achieve.
Take Kai Repsholdt, for example. After a 30-year career in the Navy (including a position as Commander of a nuclear submarine), 61-year-old Repsholdt and his wife Dianne were ready to slow down. Repsholdt, however, was not quite ready to retire. He decided to start tutoring in Sun City West, and then later enrolled in a program at GVT involving scholarships and mentoring. That program has allowed Repsholdt to teach English as a second language with multiple GVT employees, and mentor others in math and science using skills honed working 110-day shifts under the sea.
“I had a list of things I wanted to do that I couldn’t do in the Navy and at the top of the list was teach…one-on-one or in small groups,” Repsholdt said. By pursuing his dream after retiring from a traditional work schedule, Kai could “avoid the stress of the time commitment.” Without oversight and instruction from a manager, active seniors achieve individual gratification. It’s your schedule; your time – pursue it!
If you’re a people pleaser, consider regularly visiting residents of your Arizona retirement community when they are no longer as mobile or healthy as they once were. If you’ve always had a passion for storytelling, volunteer to read aloud to children at your local library.
If you aren’t sure what your life’s work is, consider what type activities fill you with energy and enthusiasm. What do you enjoy most? Is there a friend or family member with a job you’ve always admired? Do you excel in any of your pastimes, or enjoy a particular subject? Chances are there’s a volunteer or part-time position available in your area that involves your favorite activity.
Alternately, invest in your intellectualism and become a student again. Learn something completely new to you like computer programming or botany. Retirement is an opportunity to pursue one’s passions, impart wisdom and master new talents. Seniority is a period of accomplishment and enrichment, and the ideal opportunity to grow by attaining lifelong goals and aspirations.
“To teach is very rewarding, and it turns out that I have skill in teaching so there is an enjoyment of it,” Repsholdt says. In the life Repsholdt created for himself and his wife, he “can focus on the things that bring joy and contentment.”
Repsholdt knows that retirement doesn’t mean abandoning one’s life work; retirement is an opportunity to accelerate personal growth and achieve purpose. Stay active; stay content.
