“Fill your life with experiences; go forward with not only a twinkle in your eye and a smile on your face, but with a great strong purpose and passion in your head.”
I came across this quote recently, and it resonated with me. It’s an adage we can follow when we think about defining — and redefining — our retirement journey.
When I retired after a rewarding 42-year career in education, I wanted to return to the love of my life — sports — with a passion and a purpose. I started playing hockey four and sometimes five days a week, 90 minutes a day, for six months of the year.
Of course, I loved playing the game. I also enjoyed the great discussions we had in the dressing room afterwards, reliving the game play by play.
The highlight of my retirement sports “career” was entering the Canadian Adult Recreational Hockey Tournament. As a team, we joined the tournament not knowing what the competition would be like. We represented ourselves quite well, I’m happy to report — winning against a team from Finland 2–0 to become champions of our age division.
We played hockey half the year, giving me time for golf the other six months. Once again, I embraced the game wholeheartedly. Playing five days a week with seven other golfers allowed us to mix and match players from day to day. The games were for fun — with only bragging rights at stake. Of course, it was enjoyable to enter the men’s league as well as the club championship, in which I was fortunate enough to win the seniors’ division a few times.
I was fortunate to play a little more than 100 games in each activity most years.
As I step away from my volunteer role as chair of the RTOERO Board of Directors, I intend to redirect my passion and purpose in these two sports, and I hope to return to downhill skiing — especially with our grandchildren at Lake Louise.
To the next chapter,
Rich
