I retired too young

The past ten years have been great.  I wouldn’t change them for the world, except now I find myself a little bored.  See, I was planning to expatriate back in 2007.  At the last moment I met someone, she had a daughter, so I decided to stay.   It all worked out except for the relationship; all of this info later.

The past few months I have been so bored and lonely.  Between having to look after my dying cat, cold weather, and not sharing my home with anyone is taking its toll on me.

Every date I have been on the last year has poorly ended; usually, because they see “retirement” as code for welfare or lazy.  It also doesn’t help that I gave up my car in 2007 when I was planning to leave the country.  It turns out I don’t need one.  With Uber and rentals, it’s a lot cheaper.

And it’s not like I’m living a life of luxury.  I pay myself a “salary” every month, with my disposable income being approximately $500/month.  But I’m also blessed to own everything, debt free and if I decide to go back to work the money is a bonus.

In 2012, I decided to back to school just for fun, meet people and learn the latest in public relations.  That was fun.  Then I had to find an internship.  It was a disaster.  I had two; both at Fairmont properties, but because they were outside of Canada I wasn’t allowed to take them.

The reason was pure bullshit.  The reason was the school’s insurance wouldn’t cover me; there was no way for the field placement supervisor to visit the worksite, and the school was worried about the student not having enough money to live.

I wound up having meetings with the field placement supervisor, program coordinator,  dean, VP of academics and the president of the school.

Each point was thoroughly documented that I could support myself, cover all the costs, have my insurance, even offered to fly the field placement supervisor out for a could of days; which was seen as a bribe, or skype.  The program is moble, and it is possible to see where I am and what I’m doing – it’s not new technology.  I even went so far as to show them my private accounts demonstrating my wealth.  They said no because it wasn’t fair to other students.

This left me with less than a month to find one locally, and I hadn’t been looking.  I managed to get a few interviews but didn’t get an offer.  I failed the course and the program.  I realised retirement is where I belong.

What very few people know about me is that I have severe brain damage and multiple learning disabilities.  Academics has always been challenging because of the way it is structured.  In the real world, I can compensate.

The testing shows that basically, I’m an idiotic-genius. Keep in mind this is for the sake of succinctness, half my mind scores in the top 10th percentile while the other half ratings in the bottom 15th percentile.  The average is around 45/55 difference.

After nearly flunking of high school, I took my volunteer work and turned it into a full-time consulting business.  It turns out that I have a gift for writing, strategy, planning, and being able to shepherd something from A to B.

I made a fortune and got lucky in the markets.  That combined with my father passing away in 2004 was more than enough to retire on.

Now, most of my days are spent playing video games, working out, and not knowing what to do.  If I weren’t so isolated, I’d be okay.

Despite all that, I feel so lucky that I can tend to my dying cat, and do my own thing.

The last few months I have taken on a few “special projects”, one of which will pay a lot of money.  My engineer friend is on the verge of a multi-million dollar business, and I’ve been helping him along.  Now if he would just get the business plan done, I can invest as well.

All day I was thinking about OD and how great it is to be back.  I was planning a few entries, wondering about old friends I lost touch with when the site shuttered.

The picture is that of Medhia, my love and sick kitty.  Every hour she gets my attention, and the rest of the time it’s those damn squirrels I decided to start feeding.

They’re actually kind of cute.  Also a little bit creepy.  If humans ever go extinct, I’m relatively sure squirrels will take over the world.

The short version is if I can find a wife, my life would be perfect.  Yes, I’m aware one doesn’t need a partner to feel fulfilled.  But I am satisfied except in that one area.  If there was someone here at night, I’d have everything I could ever want.

MJG