After working at the company for several years it was time ...I grabbed my meager severance pay and scrambled toward Nevermore shredding dress-code musts along the way to my car.

Maybe at some point I’d end up letting go of the 4 wheels and scoop up a scooter - a ride to and from the beach, all I need. My dream come true. It’s what I stayed behind that life-sucking cubby desk for all these years - to be a beach bum! Rain or shine, to inhale that wet, salty sea air, feel the spray of frolicking waves, embrace the breeze and the shared happiness of anyone and everyone else, barefoot and free.

By the mere fact that I’ve lived this long, I’ve earned this! And from that very first toe-out-the-door moment, I’m completely happy! No-one but my own sensibilities and moral

compass to dictate what I do, when. What I wear or think! I plan to manage happily on

very little income. Don’t expect much, don’t need much. Got me enough art supplies to last a long while and will gradually replenish as needed. Love emoting onto the canvas and splashing about til some sort of picture appears...or not. Either way. Don’t care!

And, reading! Travel, love affairs, explorations, political sparring, detecting, murder … I get to do it all whenever, wherever the mood strikes. And there’s no morning after, just onward to the next sexcapade or adventure or wonder of nature.

I was born to do this - free-float through life. I did it as a student throughout school years -

out-of-body, out-the-window til suddenly a jarring, buzzing bell would jolt me from wherever I was, an hour would have passed without me. Well, I get to free-float now...and no bells to rip me from my reverie. Wait! What the….What is that noise-from-hell boring into my brain?

The alarm wakes me from my sweet slumber and I rise, once again resigning myself to a spirit-stifling cubby existence. But, ever optimistic, I mark the calendar…..1,300 days to go til my actual waking, real life retirement.

By Fran Pearce

From: United States