I have been thinking a lot lately about the various stages of my life and how I have re-invented myself at various points in my life. As a child I was small for my age and generally adhered to the rules as they were explained to me. I did not rebel that much as a child.
Once I was in Junior High I discovered theatre and acting and I realized that I could be any number of characters depending on the situation. This is something that I carried into my real life as well. It has served me well in a variety of situations, but is not always authentic.
In high school I started coming into my own realizing that I was academically minded and did very well in school. I was just peaking in my grade 12 year when I was at ease with my classmates and had the lead in the high school musical where I thrived and met a lot of other free-spirits.
When I hit UPEI, the independence that I felt being away from home was invigorating. I learned a lot in school, but in reality I learned a lot more outside of classes. Things like budgeting, making friends, and I was starting to get a sense for who I was. I was in that in between stage between adolescence and adulthood and I was loving the freedom.
When Cheryl and I got pregnant with Andrew in first year university, much of my freedom disappeared and reality settled in. I now had responsibilities. We both stepped up and began raising a family while both finishing our degree in 4 years.
While Cheryl continued on with her Masters degree, I began working to support our family. We purchased our first small house and struggled to make ends meet.
Along came Daniel and Vicki and we pushed through, still struggling financially, but learning and adjusting as needed. I went back to school for IT and Cheryl worked to support us. Then it was Cheryl's turn to go back to school for her PhD and I began working with provincial government to support our family.
I maintained my creative side through various plays and writing music and playing guitar, but the bureaucracy of government was already beginning to creep into my brain. I was told to write just the facts and not use fancy language, which is what I was good at having obtained an English degree.
Moving from Provincial to Federal government meant a bump up in pay and it allowed us to purchase a bigger home and to be more financially stable.
As the kids aged, we dealt with larger issues and Cheryl and I had to learn on the fly as we were the first of our crew to have kids and did not have many mentors or people to look to in a similar situation. We struggled but got through some very rough times.
As the kids started to age out and move out of the house, Cheryl and I became empty nesters and we love it. The peace and quite and the slower pace of life after 30+ years of chaos and living paycheck to paycheck was finally starting to subside. We began focusing more on each other and our larger plans post retirement. We started travelling more and living a healthier lifestyle involving biking, hiking, walking and eating smaller portions of healthier food.
I had a couple of health scares with my liver and stomach and it really changed my outlook and personality. I am no longer the same person I used to be. While I used to be extroverted and loved crowds, I am now quite introverted and much prefer quiet company and smaller groups of people. It has been difficult to convey this message to people who have known me for 30 years as the party guy.
I am now at another stage in my life where my work is winding down. Hopefully in the next 5 years. I thought that I would be able to coast these years as I know my job very well and have been respected for the past 25 years. But due to changes in policies and new regulations, the work that I started out doing is no longer the work that is expected of me. I used to have autonomy, but now government is changing and I sometimes find it difficult to adapt to the new procedures. I started out in my career as the youngest member of the team and now I am the oldest. I am seeing friends and colleagues retiring or moving away from government which is an indication to me that I am aging out of government.
Who knows what the next stage of my life will be, but I am hoping that it involves travel and being active.
