The Foreign Service Journal, May 2016

46 may 2016 | the foreign Service journal Fully decom- pressed, my wife, Mirian, and I boarded Amtrak for our cross-country trip. On Aug. 1 we arrived at my home- town where, after a 10-day visit withmy sister’s and brother’s families, we packed up our sturdy Honda CRV for the 1,200- mile drive down to Chula Vista, California, to start this newest adventure in our lives. Long before retirement, the frigid winters and humid sum- mers of Washington, D.C., were important in our decision to move west. Moreover, the prospect of working in an office push- ing papers had lost its appeal. International travel to complete complex assignments under strict deadlines and under constant stress was no longer exciting. I wanted something completely different in life! Hence, in 2000, we went to San Diego, where I had lived dur- ing the 1970s, to look for a suitable property to rent out before converting it into our retirement home. We found a town house that was affordable, and we found a fantastic property manager. In August 2005, we arrived to reclaim it. We spent the first year of retirement furnishing the new house and settling in. Because the house was in walking distance of a community college, I began taking classes in travel and tour- ism and to update my computer skills. For a time, I considered starting a new career in the travel industry. I also took out a membership in a local fitness center and enjoyed daily walks in the neighborhood. In the travel classes I discovered ocean cruising. Starting with a weeklong cruise to Hawaii in 2006, we have made these annual vacations. On cruises to Alaska, up and down the Pacific Coast in Mexico, through the Panama Canal, and with stops at differ- ent ports in Central and South America, we have visited friends and family and met fantastic people with whom we’ve stayed in contact over the years. I continued searching for the ideal retirement activity. I spent a year learning the insurance industry. I completed the training course and was state-certified, but concluded that it was not right for me. What I really wanted, I discovered, was a part-time job that would get me out of the house to meet people and give my wife time for herself. That led to a five-year stint as a part-time “security guard” certified by the State of California. I received security training—never in firearms, which I detest— but worked in crowd control and ushering people who attend sports and entertainment events at large venues. Finally, just three years ago, I found my ideal retirement job—as an associate with Home Depot. Working in the Garden- ing Department three to four days a week on four-hour shifts keeps me constantly walking, bending and stretching to water plants and load bags of rocks and fertilizer. I’ve shed 25 pounds, brought my pants size down two inches, and stayed fit. Also, I use my Spanish to help customers who prefer that language. And the Met Life dental insurance offered by Home Depot to its part- time employees beats what I left the federal government with 10 years ago! Sonny Low volunteered with the Peace Corps in Chile from 1968 to 1970, and was associate director for programs and training in Colom- bia and Costa Rica from 1974 to 1979. He joined USAID in 1979, and during a 25-year Foreign Service career served in Washington, D.C., Panama, Honduras, Ecuador, Guatemala and Poland. Volunteer Work: Bigger Opportunities in Smaller Towns By Mark Lore I ’d suggest that those approaching retirement begin to develop interests not connected to the Foreign Service. For a few years after my retirement at age 59, I traded on my FS background. I taught at FSI and Shenandoah University, gave talks to adult education classes and service clubs, and wrote several articles for the FSJ and other publications. Gradually, however, these “gigs” vanished. Unless you are actively engaged on a daily basis with the issues, your usefulness to others inevitably atrophies. One should have a Plan B. For me, the fallback has been community volunteer work. In this, I was fortunate to have settled in small-town America (Winchester, Virginia) where the competition is less but the opportunities can be surprisingly diverse. I have directed a local Sonny Low found his ideal retirement job working in the Gardening Department at Home Depot. COURTESYOFSONNYLOW