SON: Connections - Spring 2002

Headlines | Briefly | From the Deans Desk | Alumni News

Voices from the New "Wonder Years": Life After "Retirement"
Sandra Eyres, PhD
Professor Emeritus of Family and Child Nursing
The Sandra Eyres Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award was established in her honor.

"Since retirement last year I have developed a new relationship with time: I can focus more on the quality of my journey and less on accomplishing tasks by deadlines. After retirement I became aware of looking out at my yard and the busy bird feeder, with no sense of having to hurry, seeing things around me that are beautiful in ways I'd never noticed before. Similarly I have more mental quietness to focus on people. This shift has increased my alertness to both my inner and outer world, bringing more pleasure as well as more impatience as the clarity about what is important grows stronger. (The blessing is that as we get older the impatience can be interpreted as eccentricity rather than blatant rudeness!) Instead of time passing slowly because I am not employed I feel it passing even more quickly; there are so many wonderful books to read, so many things to learn about, so many interesting events to attend. I purposefully did not jump into volunteer opportunities right away until I could sort out the changes that came with retirement. (This type of activity came soon though through the church I attend regularly and by virtue of the needs of aging friends.) I found myself reconnecting with friends and relatives from the past and going on a 3-week trip to England with friends who have become like family. My friends and family are central to my well-being and are inseparable from this happiest part yet of my life. I now realize that what I used to help teach in the Lifespan Growth and Development course is true: at my age a central activity is "life review" -- recalling and making sense out of what has gone before and preparing for what is yet to come while dealing with the physical changes of aging."

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