Crow’s Feet Prompt #63: Looking ahead
A Life I Don’t Need a Vacation From
Building a better today
Before I retired, I was a nurse. I worked at a Level 1 Trauma Center for over 26 years. I worked in high-skill areas like the ICU, PACU, and the operating room. I did All. The. Big. Cases. and I took care of All. The. Sickest. Patients.
To say it was a stressful career would be a massive understatement. And like many of my colleagues, I coped by partying as hard as I worked. I always had some kind of live music event or trip on my calendar. Seeing those events gave me the fortitude to get myself up at o’dark thirty, drive to work, and take care of those very sick patients.
I needed those events — I needed to look forward because my now was such complete chaos.
Then one day, it was all over. I was retired. And it seemed like it took no time whatsoever for me to build a life I didn’t need to escape from.
Over the past four years of this new chapter, I have found that I no longer need to run away from my now. I don’t need to have stuff on my calendar just to get me through the week. My wanderlust to travel to All. The. Places. has evaporated. My bucket list holds zero adventures.
