Growing up, people around me were often saying, “I wish I’d been more rich instead of good-looking!” As a young person, there were a few where I looked at them and wondered what made them think they were good-looking, not knowing any better.
As I got older, and began to realize we were poor, that saying made a whole lot more sense. It was just a round about way of us all saying we wish we weren’t poor. Made the sting of it a little easier to digest.
Although definitely better off than I was growing up, there are still times in which I think about this saying. Not because of the looks part, but because it would mean I wouldn’t need to continue working.
It isn’t because I don’t enjoy my job, because I very much do. It isn’t because I’m not filling fulfilled by my duties, because I am. It isn’t about not having great colleagues, because I work with one of the best teams I’ve ever been a part of during my working life. It isn’t any of those things.
It’s about just becoming increasingly tired of working. I would very much like to not have to set the alarm clock, drive to work, put in an eight to ten hour day, drive home, just to repeat the next day. If I were rich, I could go to bed when I want, wake when I want, and have a day without a set routine or need to perform.
My fantasy is to just be able to sit on the couch, or my favorite chair, or on the patio and read books. One book after another after another. I’d have my coffee or soda to sip, and my dog laying beside me. All day long we’d just commune with words. Every so often I’d write here on the blog, or start another book. There’d be some baking and gardening too of course. Just being.
I’m sure I’m not the only one with a fantasy of what life would be like if we didn’t have to work every day. All of us have those days. It has been a wondering if these feelings become more intense the closer one gets to retirement age. I’ve noticed over the past couple of years it is much harder to return after vacations because of the leisureliness of the time off. I think this is why I usually don’t take a whole week at a time anymore.
Oh well, fantasy is not reality. But, I think I might go buy a couple of lottery tickets. Maybe this will be my week…
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 