The Flight of the Bumblebee
From a very early age, we start to hear the question: “what do you want to be when you grow up?” In kindergarten, I answered this question, much to the alarm of my mother, by saying that I wanted to be a “hair cutter.” Now, there’s nothing wrong with being a hair cutter, but when a parent expects to hear doctor, lawyer, or business tycoon, then it comes as a shock to the system. My dream of making people beautiful with my hairstyling skills came to an end shortly thereafter when I cut my sister’s bangs. A few years later, after her bangs grew out, she was in kindergarten answering the same old question. She answered the teacher by saying that she wanted to be a bumblebee when she grew up. “No!” the teacher said, “you have to be something human!” My sister thought about it for a few more seconds and decided in that case she wanted to be a gas station attendant, because she liked the smell of gasoline. Five-year-olds have very little world experience, so it was as good an answer as any. Though we abandoned our early dreams to be hairstylists and striped pollinators, every now and then we ask ourselves, “What do I want to be when I grow up?” I know people older than I am who still ponder this — and they should! Lifelong learners, especially, want to remain vibrant and live their lives with purpose and meaning, no matter how old they are. If you’re curious about what to do with your future, our upcoming Re/Imagining Retirement Summit can help. It’s designed for anyone — retired or not — who wants to gain tools that will help them imagine and reimagine what they thought retirement had to be and to live their best lives in the process. If somebody asks, “what do you want to do when you retire?,” it’s fine to answer “bumblebee.” You can flit around with different ideas, and you don’t have to land just one place for life to be sweet.
Stay safe and healthy,
Tracy Jacobs
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