Reality is that for economical reasons, I do have to work until mandatory retirement age. It's not what I want. It freaks me out that just yesterday I found out a woman I know will be retiring at 55, early retirement. That's only 6 yrs. older than myself. She is sounding jaded and probably doesn't have drive right now to reinvent her career.

But I'm trying my very best to squeeze in personal time passions now...not wait until the real retirement comes. You never know how life might be by then..besides interest courses come and go.

ANd their accessibility varies tremendously on where one is living ..if there is even decent instructors around.

ANd I cannot wait until retirement to do travelling that requires decent physical fitness...I must do it now when I'm still quite healthy. I am reminded of this whenever we do rigorous hiking/snowshoeing/cycling stints.

Problem is lack of time....sigh.