Personal Notes Series 020 : Retirement

"The goal is to retire at 50."

I forgot where I originally heard the idea. I think I was 20 when I challenged the thought and myself:

"Why retire at 50 if you can do it at 30?"

But as time passed, I realized that we all have our own definition of retirement. Yun palang idea na nakuha ko na "retire at 50" roughly translated to:

"At 50, I won't be doing this job that I don't want anymore and will just live off my pension. And do + [Insert hobby here]"

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So what should be the goal then?

"...we had among us, another part-timer. Here's a picture of him. We call him Uncle Bob since we can't pronounce his chinese name. Uncle Bob almost wasn't allowed to work last night since he reeked with smoke. I took a picture of him during our late meal at 12.15AM - we were tablemates then. I think he's over 70 years old."

These photos were taken in 2011 during my Practicum. Uncle Bob is from Singapore. The culture there when it comes to retirement and the old are different. I remember him saying in his Singaporean accent :

"If I retire ahhhhh, I die! Finissssssh alreadyyyyy!"

 Here in the Philippines when you retire or grow old, there's this culture of having your family take care of you. Not all families adapt to this though. But then what? Nothing! Once we start depending on your family for survival, we become weak. We are left to slowly decay and wait for death. But when you carefully think about it, aren't you already dead inside at this point?

Because what keeps us human beings alive is  

PURPOSE

This is the very reason why we continue despite failure. Despite pain. And the moment we decide that we have reached our goals and the end, the moment we believe we have completed our why is the moment we stop growing. 

So seek God. Find your purpose, your big WHY, a never-ending cause you'll commit until your last breath. For the greatest tragedy in life, is living without meaning.