THE FRONTIER

After working your whole life comes the time to retire. For some, this means delight, for others sadness. But when the time came to cross that line, I, just like a wide majority of people, felt a void. One day they step away from that job that was becoming so tough, since in our country, people at work concentrate exclusively on the tasks they have been entrusted.

When we think about our group of workers from saving banks and banks, starting at 8:30AM, many of us living very far from our working place, spending hours commuting in trains, boats or cars, retirement means a radical change from everyday life.

Personally, according to what I felt, I think that retired people consider that they have been stamped a visa on their passport, as if they had crossed a frontier.

At first, they feel disheartened and frustrated, then they get to think they are useless. All they have left is waiting for the moment to go to the place from which nobody returns. I think it is a negative attitude and I also believe that those « young people » should convince themselves that they are useful not only to their family but also to society.

And I am talking with full knowledge of my own experience, since when I retired I stayed inactive only a week and then looked for something that would keep me « alive » a few hours during the day. And I can affirm that from this very moment I haven’t stopped. Today, after 19 years of retirement and at 79 year-old, I think I work more than when I had a job.

To conclude with, I just want to give a piece of advice, from someone who experienced the frontier-crossing feeling, not for long fortunately: do not stay all day on garden benches with other retired friends to entertain yourselves.

Good luck and feel « younger » since life is going on. You have to face the feeling of a « visa on the passport » with bravery and stoicism, and to find something that keeps you busy during the day.

Antonio Sirgado Serra - Portugal