Retirement: It's Never Too Early To Discuss

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One Saturday morning in early September of 2017, I was sitting in my kitchen on a bar stool with my feet dangling while munching on some Cheerios cereal. I closed my eyes for a brief moment and decided to reflect back on the times in Italy when I was sitting on a bar stool munching on some pizza with a glass of Aperol spritz in my hand admiring the beautiful view. After all, I was still having post-Italy vacation depression since I had only been back in Canada for a few weeks after spending half of my summer there.

After reality finally set in, I paused and looked at my mom who was drinking her coffee and reading a magazine on the other side of the counter. “Mom, when I’m old I want to spend my years of retirement in Italy. I want to live on the Amalfi Coast and eventually die there surrounded by the mountains and the ocean.” I said. My mom glanced up from her magazine with an annoyed look on her face. She then started laughing at me. I guess she found it humorous that I had already been thinking about retirement at the young age of seventeen. However, I made sure to inform her that retirement was something that is never too early to discuss. After all, when I’m old and wrinkly I don’t want to be sitting around in a retirement home all day where the only thing that I have left to look forward to is a weekly game of bingo and a breakfast buffet. No sir, that is not going to be me.

During my years of retirement, I want to follow a bucket list that fits perfectly with my surroundings in a cute little house on the side of a mountain in Amalfi. A house with a window that I can open up to hang my clothes to dry under the hot southern Italian sun. A place that holds history and adventures. A place to go swimming and buy fresh fruit. A place to retire that holds memories of my teen years. At the age of seventeen, I look forward to retirement knowing that my many years of handwork and dedication in whatever I ended up doing have paid off and have allowed me to be old and sit on a bar stool at my house on the Amalfi Coast.

"If bliss could be a colour, today would be Amalfi blue."

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