Article March 28, 2016 Issue

No retirement from a bright future

Martin Vesely

There are a number of ways by which others identify us. Aside from physical characteristics, such as gender, height, weight, eye color, and unique fingerprints, today we have identifying documents in the form of ID cards, drivers’ licenses, social security cards, and passports.

But how do we identify ourselves? An equally important question may be, With what do we most closely identify?

Many people find a sense of identity and purpose from their jobs or careers. This was emphasized to me one day when a fellow co-worker came up to me, after hearing of my pending retirement, and said bluntly, “Where are you going to find your sense of worth?” I told him that my hope was that I had brought something useful to the job and had not let the job define who I was. I have to admit that I have known co-workers who retired and were very unhappy. In fact, they seemed to be somewhat lost, without much purpose or direction in their lives.

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