Post-work life is glorious. Like snowball, I'm presenting my current status to the world as a sabbatical/break from work, and it's helped hugely. Everyone sympathizes with being burned out and needing a break... suggesting that, hey, maybe regular career breaks should be for EVERYONE?? Radical thought. ;)
So far it's been a week and a half and the hiking, the barn time, the researching house design/build principles, cooking, crocheting, listening to podcasts, cleaning, selling random shit that has piled up over the years... time flies and I jump out of bed wanting to do it ALL and not having enough time. I can't get over it. One day of dealing with others who hadn't pulled their weight on a non-profit got me stressed and bummed out... until I realized that this was ONE stressed-out moment in 10 days, rather than most of the day, every day. Then I did a happy dance and had a beer.
Oh, also so far I've found that the "purpose post-work" thing has been less of a problem since I was already volunteering for a couple of orgs, and have some learning/volunteer activities lined up. It's "busy" enough, for sure, and I feel like I'm contributing to others -- not just watching soaps and eating bon bons (though I did that one day too, but the Netflix/snacks version). I think I've had one day so far without something scheduled, but that's about how I like it!
So grateful, so tickled, so pleased. Best to the whole cohort and excited for you all not-yet-departed folks to have similar post-work times!
