Second Career Volunteer

AuthorHouse

Contents

Introduction......................................................xiONE: Drama & Trauma...............................................1Interview: Clarissa...............................................13TWO: Agin' is Changin'............................................19Interview: Joan...................................................31THREE: Choice and Voice...........................................38Interview: Ken and Sue............................................51FOUR: Scheme to Team ... or Not...................................56Interview: Betty..................................................65FIVE: Guilt Wilts.................................................71Interview: Sue and Terry..........................................83SIX: Pleasure and Treasure........................................89Interview: Leona and Jim..........................................98SEVEN: Heed Needs.................................................104Interview: Mary...................................................114EIGHT: Use it or Lose it..........................................120APPENDIX 1: FORMS.................................................131Organization Evaluation...........................................131Self-Evaluation...................................................134Five Stages of Retirement.........................................136APPENDIX 2: DOCUMENTS.............................................137Explanation of Terms and Documents................................137What Should Be Considered an Important Paper?.....................138Resources.........................................................139Categorized List of Volunteer Organizations.......................141A-Z Listing of Websites...........................................143Index.............................................................163

Chapter One

"It is not what we do, but what we do not do, for which we are accountable." Molliere

Dropping straight down through Western Canada, to the east of Juneau, Alaska, is the almost paved Cassiar Highway. The road is drivable, unless it is raining and slick mud eases the car off into the wild. I'm driving alone on a clear day in August, windows down, slowly traversing the gravelly surface. My eyes are eager for dramatic jade hued lakes displayed in a setting of deep green foliage and my ears sensitive to the whistles of soaring eagles, when I hear a scratching sound. Glancing through the passenger window, I see a light brown lump rhythmically pouncing and pawing at the bark of a downed tree. A bear was looking for lunch! Easing the car into park, I watch for a while, snapping pictures from inside the car. Preparing to snap another, I realize the only sound is my idling engine. The bear has stopped scratching. Deliberately, he turns his head in my direction, rising to full height as only a grizzly can. I decide to drive on.

Driving to Alaska was a fantasy right up there with pigs flying! My reality was working as an administrative assistant for over forty-five years, raising three children as a single mother, circumstance generating abundant determination ... and few resources. Yet, the concept of spending my first year of retirement as a volunteer in Alaska would evolve and, like the pigs, sprout wings to become a series of courageous adventures.

Life, like history, is cyclical. We are born into a predisposed lifestyle shaped by circumstance; we marry and produce children; they marry and the cycle continues. We struggle to maintain control, blending compromise with perpetual adjustment to transition , be it childhood, college or employment. Our transitions ebb and flow. Some of us seem to experience more transition than others.

Over a twenty-year span, due to a grass-is-greener-spouse, I moved eighteen times across the country and back. Pioneering into the unknown can cause frustration and anxiety, but it also builds skills in how to deal with transition

Approaching retirement as just another transition is perhaps why my choice of a unique volunteer retirement lifestyle did not cause trepidation. I was accustomed to the drama and trauma of perpetual motion. Being a pioneer is not a new experience. However, becoming a role model was.

I never imagined retiring and volunteering in Alaska. It happened, spurred by circumstance, just like many of my other moves. But, unlike the previous random, frenzied relocations, this opportunity would prove to be positive and methodical. My adventure started when I received an e-mail from my sister telling me that while she and her husband were touring the Inside Passage of Alaska in their RV, they stopped to investigate Sitka.

Looking for a place to hook-up, they discovered Sheldon Jackson College, a small independent college that supplemented their staff with volunteers, offering room and board. Remembering that I mentioned hoping to travel in retirement my sister e-mailed the address of the volunteer coordinator. Since I would depend solely on Social Security income, the fact that the college provided room and board in return for working a forty hour week was crucial. I would only be responsible for transportation and incidental expenses. In other words, I only had to get there!

Like most women born around the end of WWII, I was raised to consider others before self. Today it seems self comes first—not selfish, self, as in responsibility to self before assuming responsibility for someone else. This outlook is focused on reality; more positive than negative. When thirty-somethings refer to their lifestyle, the reference is to "I" and "my" rather than "our". I began to reprogram myself to look at the rest of my life from this divergent perspective.

And, I am not alone. Boomers are another group discovering adjustments to lifestyle may be in order. Senior years are now the mystery of the future, a time when twenty-years or more can be anticipated, provided we are physically, emotionally, and financially prepared.

A Blessing of Smudge

Living far away from family for a year would be a new experience. Since I had been a presence in my grandchildren's lives for many years, preserving that loving relationship became paramount. To minimize the impending separation, and without being morose, I composed a poem, sharing my feelings about the opportunity of volunteering in Alaska, expressing my love for each child and reviewing past adventures we shared. I purchased two animal themed throws and, in Native American tradition, smudged each with sage, the smoke emitting the familiarity of scent and affection to replenish memories when called upon. This token, offered with love, mellowed my departure. I truly believe this gift softened the impending separation.

Retirement now translates to a time of independent imagination ... independent of children, spouse (perhaps), job and/or responsibility. It is a coming of age shift in perception translating to "it's my turn and it's not selfish to admit it". Retirement is a time to reclaim dreams, a time to let passion fuel the ability to enjoy the rest of our lives, a time to get out of the "no" zone (no I can't; no, not right now, maybe later) into the "know" zone (I know I can). Contrary to popular belief, seventy is not the new fifty, it is the new seventy. Perhaps it is time to ask, what shall I do with these mystery years?...