Then What?

Among my group of friends, I am certainly the restless one. It came as no surprise that I decided to move across the country after graduating from school. For better or for worse, I did not stay in one place but continued to move around.

I travelled so much that it eventually became a defense mechanism when I didn’t know what else to do. I thought, “At the very least, I’ll be someplace new.”

In my travels, I’ve been lucky enough to meet new friends and stay with old ones who also moved away. We talk about our goals and our plans to achieve them, as young graduates often do.

Without much of a plan to accomplish my goals, I kept pushing on and travelled to places I hadn’t seen before. However, when sharing my plans to keep exploring I would always face the same question: “then what?”

Usually this question is asked by a friend who decided to follow a significantly different life path than myself. Of course, most life paths are different than the one I’ve chosen but the most common one among my friends is one with a steady job to afford consistent housing.

I’ll describe a few of my latest adventures to a friend and they’ll ask, “What’s next for you?” My answer to that question was less of a plan and more of a destination. “I’m headed South,” I might say.

Understandably, to a person with a consistent lifestyle, the vagueness of that plan is maddening. I’ve learned to expect the follow-up question to my answer: “Then what?’

Although they may not believe me, I do understand the intention behind this question. These are practical people who have made a prudent decision for their future by signing up for a salaried position in which their day-to-day can become expectable. They are merely concerned for me and my restlessness, hoping a physical or financial disaster doesn’t blindside me.

When I don’t have an answer to that question, they’ll shift to the offensive. “You never think things through! You’re going to get yourself into trouble unless you make a plan and stick to it!” These are people who are currently sticking to their plan, I can’t blame them for trying to give me the advice they follow everyday.

Since our society values financial standing, I cannot argue with these friends because they are objectively correct based on the “rules of the game” we’re playing. The rules say you need to have money for food and shelter, and eventually retirement, and they’ve worked to ensure a steady income.

However, my ephemeral lifestyle has granted me access to perspectives beyond what is typical for my age. I have met people from all over the world at various points in their lives and learned from them. I learned the lessons that they were willing to teach as well as the struggles they still faced. Among the struggles, one stuck out more than any other: retirement.

You might be thinking, “How can retirement possibly be a struggle? Working to afford retirement is the real struggle, after that it’s all relaxation.”

The struggle facing these older folks isn’t a financial one like the one my generation faces, it’s one of boredom. For years, decades in some cases, they work a job to put enough money away to possibly raise children or simply afford a consistent lifestyle without the need to work anymore.

Throughout those years, they kept up with their daily grind thinking about the rewards they were earning for themselves later in life. Like it or not, working a job for years will change you. The plans you made for retirement in your 20s and 30s may no longer align with your interests in your 50s and 60s. You have worked for “the better part” of your life and now you have as much time as you want but don’t know what to do with yourself.

This is the question I ask to those people who consider themselves practical:

Then what?

You have successfully set yourself up to earn sufficient income to retire according to your plan. You might think about your retirement everyday but eventually your thoughts will become more and more about your work. It’s where you spend most of your time, after all.

Then what?

Once you retire in a few decades, do you know what you’ll want to do? Will you try to just figure it out when you get there? Will your body be able to keep up with your mind after a few decades of work?

Congratulations, you’ve successfully worked for the majority of your adult life. Then what?

I don’t mean to chastise any practical people. If anything, they’re technically higher than me on the social ladder because of their efforts to find consistent income. However, the lesson every retired person I have met decides to share with me is this:

Live now!
Do what you can while you’re still young.

Every retired person I’ve ever met

I may not know what I’m going to do once I get to my next destination, but I’ll figure it out when I get there in a few hours or days. Are you willing to work for years for the opportunity to figure out what you want to do with yourself once you finally have the time?