Lucky Me, I'm Retired

Yeah, I am lucky. When I came to Canada it was the year 1982, and the country was going through the same kind of economic upheaval as now, in 2009. It was a period of search for available jobs and knowing nothing about this very sophisticated technique, I was lost without a paddle...

But I was lucky all my life, and a relative living in the States knew somebody living in Montreal, who recommended someone else in Toronto, who was in charge of construction work at a general contractor's office, and he willingly helped all and every newcomers from Romania. Through him I got into the construction industry and survived quite well those stormy years, but...

First, I had to give up on my engineer's diploma and learn a new profession. Then, when I felt burned out, I quit one job in search of the perfect profession and stumbled into life insurance, which for me proved to be as far from perfect as suicide is from living-happily-for-ever-after...

In ignominious shame, I returned to construction -- i.e. estimating -- and continued for some more years, till I made a well-intentioned mistake... and got fired.

I was at the critical age of 45, and I got to benefit from the grant offered by our government to mature unemployed adults left to fend for themselves. I learned a new profession -- again -- and moved to a totally different field -- computers. And got hired quite easily into a big corporation.

You must know how one gives one's life over into the corporate hands. So did I. Every thing turned around the company and for almost 10 years I continued to do my very best and worked overtime, neglecting family life; but the end was the same! The company needed to restructure and our department was "chosen".

We got the golden handshake on condition we do not discuss it and the company's business with the competition, and from 2001 I'm out of work.

After years of assured income in a big corporation, I lost my job and started looking for something else...

I was so very unhappy -- all my adult life I worked and kept my financial independence, and now I was too old to start in a new line of work, and too young to retire. Living on my husband's efforts was unseemly to me, but time passed and:

one -- I got used to the idea of not having to commute to work, and
two -- I decided to go on early-retirement,

and never looked back from there...

Today, I feel I'm very lucky that I do not need to go out there and compete with all those millions out of work.

Lucky me, I'm retired.

by Raluca Popov
7 May. 2009