Late Blooming Boomer

So, let me hear you ROAR!  Too quiet, Baby Boomer-ites! We are the biggest, loudest and most influential generation ever - or so "they" say. We are heading into a longer old age than our parents experienced with higher expectations of what that might look like.  No sensible shoes and cotton stockings in my closet - well, maybe some "more" sensible shoes - but they sit alongside hiking boots and high heels!  I guess you could call me a late-blooming boomer!

I was dreaming about love and marriage when others were protesting on university campuses across our nation.  I was a stay at home Mom in the 70's and 80's when most were preaching emancipation for all of us housewives (like we were married to a house and not a man!).  I never burned my bra (thank God!) and I never took part in any libertarian march down any main street in Canada. Oh, I had thoughts and opinions and a voice, but I never held a placard or faced down a police officer other than over an occasional traffic ticket. And yet, I am a part of the very vocal generation.

Now that I have my head above water and my hands out of the diaper pail, I am blooming!  I launched into a career in education when I turned 40, progressed up the ladder of success to management in my 50's and now, I am hitting my stride and really feeling excited about what I could do to make a difference in my 60's and - boom - there's the beckoning of retirement just over that hill!   Do I or don't I?  When? And what will it look like?  I find myself gazing at a multitude of other blogs gleaning little glimpses of what retirement could be like.  I have discovered interesting alternatives to the status quo and out come the lists, the pro's and con's and all that my truly analytic mind embraces. The Top Ten Places to Retire or The Top Five Signs You Are Ready to Retire - I have read them all!   I have stacks of library books on the subject sitting beside my laptop at home and I can spend hours researching the "retirement; aging in place, boomer women" tags.

I conjured up a Plan A, B, C & D and then I stopped!  I only need Plan A right now!  Am I really ready for all of this - she who hesitates to take advantage of senior discounts because she forgets that she is already a senior in many restaurants or at  rental car places or for hotel bookings?  I feel better when they question me on my senior status - as in "I don't believe you!" than when they accept it without question!  Perhaps that is vanity but I think it is more that I just don't think of myself as a senior perhaps because I am not ready to give up what I love to pursue a new "love".  Yet.

So, I continue to hit snooze on my alarm Monday to Friday and shop for the office wardrobe every Fall because, right now, I am in that place where I can make a difference - and get paid for it!  I am keeping an eye on the "other side" full of promises of leisurely and cheap travel and passion fulfilled without pay but the bridge between this world and that one is still being built.  I am sure that when the final nail is hammered I will be ready to walk across and start my next "blooming" phase - perhaps I will be  "Boomer Spreading Her  Branches" or "Boomer Putting Down Roots" or "Boomer Pushing Up Daisies!"  No matter what, though, I will continue to be Boomer Blogger 'cause, that is where my keyboard takes me!