I'm right there with you, tom. I'm 52 now and I've been doing what I've been doing for 31 years. You know, about the time you reealize it's time for a change, you also realize you're too old to be desirable to many employers. So, yeah, that's when you start thinking about things you can do, and I also agree that you should obviously do whatever it is that makes you happy. In my personal case, part of what makes me happy is also what is the best intersts of my family.
One of the things my job allows me to do is free up my wife not to have to make more money. So she works helping people with mental illnesses navigate the bureacracy to get help and shelter. Being that it actually is a service to humanity, of course, it pays squat. But I get a lot of joy out of being able to provide enough to the family budget to allow her to do that and regale me each night with stories about how she's actually made a difference in people's lives while I slapped up html copy that day. But since we're a team, everythign has an end purpose and we all have particular jobs to do toward that purpose. So for me, work isn't really about slapping up html copy, it's about how that contributes to the higher purpose.
When our kids were small, the purpose of my work was allowing my wife to stay home with young children so they could have a full-time parent. But they grow older and the family dynamic changes.
But if I could do anything I wanted right now, I'd go fly Lifeflights. Or I'd build Habitat for Humanity houses -- flying from city to city in my RV -- of I'd volunteer at Special Olympics. I could do all of those things and I'd be pretty happy at it.... but it would come at the expense of some people who need help and need me to do what I do to so they can get it.
This is a direct result of my New England upbringing and is known as the curse of the Puritan work ethic.
It can suck. But it also offers constant opportunity for fulfillment. I like to write an occasional article to sell, or put together some freelance work (
sample) to satisfy the creative juices and to a large degree, the purpose of building an RV (in my case) is exactly that of the experimental category....education and recreation (in which there's a plane a tthe end of the process). How cool is that?
We all have to decide for ourselves what defines our happiness...whether it's building an RV and taking kids fishing or being in some sort of service in the short time we're allowed on the planet, or managing our resources in such a way that we can offer an opportunity to our heirs to continue a service philosophy.
As I head into my senior years, I find myself less concerned about the trappings this life can provide and more concerned about having it matter that I was here at all in the first place.
Figuring out where that meaning comes from is all part of the journey and one we have to assess individually for we will not know the correct answer until much later.
Congratulations to your for your approach, Tom. Many good wishes to you, yoru family and your future students whose lives you'll change for the better.