Retirementisabeginning.com is a site started by me, Barbara W. Scobey, PhD who faced the question, “What do I do now following retirement?” As a self-proclaimed workaholic, this was and remains an intimidating question. After 5 retired years, I returned to work full-time in April 2022. A disclaimer is that for those 5 years, I taught graduate level students in the College of Business at Concordia University, Austin, Texas as senior adjunct faculty. I held that role for more than 12 years in addition to being employed full-time by the state of Texas.
November 28, 2022, I fell or as I choose now to call it, vertically realigned myself, in my home office, twisted my right leg and knee and came away with a distal fracture of the right femur. At the time, I was working full-time as well as teaching a night class. From November 28 to December 22, I spent my time in the hospital or the rehabilitation hospital. Since the end of 2022, I have been home bound with superior rehabilitation being provided by Rehab Without Walls.
In the last month, I have begun to walk short distances with a walker, have been taken shopping by therapists, been transported to hair and nail appointments, medical appointments, gone swimming, and explored the public library. All this under the supervision and assistance of two exceptional therapists – one a Physical Therapist and the other an Occupational Therapist. As a diabetic, the outstanding registered dietician has been making sure I get my out-of-control diabetes in check. A kind and caring social worker is part of my therapy team and she is helping me face the reality of my situation and the recovery road. This journey is hard on not only myself, but my husband and children. It is not for sissies that is for sure! It is requiring me to reassess my life, priorities, and future.
For some reason, the only person who thinks I need to return to work is me! I keep hearing such phrases as “get a hobby”, “enjoy life” and “do what makes you happy.” Working made me happy and I miss it. Many years ago, I took some art classes and still remember thinking what the owner of the studio needed to do to make it into a more successful business.
Now, I want to marry the concept of working and making a difference in others’ lives with the concept of working on things I enjoy. To that end, I resurrected dreams of writing, research, providing career advice and coaching, developing practical training classes, technical writing, creating a blog or two, and finding things – products or services – that serve me well at this stage in my life. Hobbies? Yes, I am going to start painting again – although I am no Picasso.
I am going to update this blog frequently and would love to research any issue that you as a retiree face and want more information on. Just shoot an email to BScobey@gmail.com. Identify yourself as a blog reader and provide contact information.