PARKLAND LIFE Leisure my way by Jill Vogel am a Type A personality. I have all the I associated personality traits to go with it — workaholic, goal oriented, need to be right. After 10 years on Wall Street and 25 plus in Educational Administration, I decided to hang it all up. After all, I had a good pension, a lovely home in Parkland, a husband who wanted to work forever to ensure our financial well being, and great health insurance. My fantasy about retirement included sleeping past 5:40am, read countless novels, relax by my pool, and ride my bike. After doing the math with my supportive husband, I took the plunge and ended my work career. After the party, the tearful goodbyes, and bringing home the office stuff I had accumulated over 25 years, my retirement began. At first, it seemed idyllic, and I was busy not only with ‘fun’ experiences but with packing up and selling our New York home to retire to Parkland. All seemed rosy and three years ago my retirement in Florida became a reality. After a few days of sleeping in and puttering around the house I began to get anxious — how should I spend my days? I rode my bike daily, played Mah Jong once a week, met friends for breakfast or lunch and shopping, and read by my pool. It occurred to me that it was not enough. Now to be fair, moving away from New York made it impossible to do one of my favorite things — see my grandchildren and babysit as needed; this was my new normal and I was not content. As a type A, I approached my life as a project. I began to research places to visit and things to do. I got a few friends together to do day trips to museums, gardens, fairs, etc. While I loved these days it still wasn’t enough. Volunteering became the next idea but, after a couple of mishaps, it became clear — unless they needed a volunteer CEO — this wouldn’t work for me. Taking classes and learning new things came next and, while I loved some of the retiree courses offered by the Parkland Library, I discovered that I am not an arts and crafts kinda gal. So, what do I do? I hopefully have many years ahead of me and I was determined to understand how to make myself happy. Then the epiphany came — I could structure my day as I had when I worked. I could fill the morning, afternoon, and evening with activities I enjoy. Sounds crazy but it worked. So, here is what I did: along with a couple of other experienced players, we formed a group to learn canasta. We organized games a couple of days a week and a couples Canasta Club in the evening twice monthly. A group of us joined the Lifelong Learning Center at FAU and registered for courses. Two friends and I bought season tickets to Broadway in Broward. I started to take a weekly class with Rabbi Boxman at Kol Tikvah Synagogue. Life was better but still not entirely fulfilling. That’s when I decided to create my own volunteer opportunities. I created a curriculum to teach Mah Jong and Canasta at the Parkland Public Library. Not only did my classes fill up, I felt I was doing something worthwhile for others. The final piece fell into place when I began to write these articles as a way to share my thoughts and use my brain creatively. So what began as a dream of relaxing days has turned into a retirement that suits me. I fall into bed every night fulfilled and happy to face another challenging day of retirement. P 56 MAY <strong>2018</strong>
the PARKLANDER 57
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