{"id":107,"date":"2019-08-27T22:27:24","date_gmt":"2019-08-27T22:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tomeri.org\/blog\/?p=107"},"modified":"2024-08-10T21:40:52","modified_gmt":"2024-08-10T21:40:52","slug":"tuesday-27-august-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/journal\/2019\/08\/27\/tuesday-27-august-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to DC \u2013 Retirement & Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tuesday<\/em> 27 August 2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Then to Now<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Email to DC<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Yes, the self-description problem is a challenging one. I usually, as well, include that I worked at  Apple, even though Apple was half the length and two decades farther in the past than IBM, for the sorts of reasons you describe. Apple still has cachet. Amazing it\u2019s lasted 40+ years\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have a friend who commented after a charitable event she was hosting \u2014 she does a side-gig as president of a small non-profit \u2014 that she ran into \u201cone of those guys who used to be somebody,\u201d referring to the way he was presenting himself. I thought, ‘Yes, I know what you mean,\u2019 (not that I was much of a somebody) and \u2018I don\u2019t want to be that guy.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I am trying to let go of the professional component of my self identity. And of course it\u2019s difficult to let go of an ~4-decade investment in a career that I feel turned out pretty well. Still, I have to accept that as time goes on it will seem less and less relevant to others. Other people of our age may be be mildly interested, but to most it will seem (at most) a historical curiosity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not quite sure what the alternative is to identifying myself with a profession. I can list a string of avocations, but that somehow doesn\u2019t quite feel like it. And I will never be accomplished enough at either piano or geology, my two biggest foci, that I can call myself a pianist or a geologist. Saying I\u2019m a bricoleur or flaneur seems more accurate, but almost no one knows those terms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve not yet had any negative interactions with younger students, but then I\u2019ve had approximately zero interactions because so far I\u2019ve only taken a lecture course. And I believe that to students, I am either invisible (a feeling which I\u2019ve been increasingly noticing as I age), or perhaps a bit off-putting as I look like a parent (grandparent) or professor. We\u2019ll see how it goes this fall, where one course has a sort of lab (it\u2019s forestry, so I don\u2019t think it will be what I think of a lab), and the other seems like it may have some group projects.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

#<\/p>\n

Views: 18<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday 27 August 2019 From Then to Now Email to DC Yes, the self-description problem is a challenging one. I usually, as well, include that I worked at  Apple, even though Apple was half the length and two decades farther in the past than IBM, for the sorts of reasons you describe. Apple still has … Continue reading Letter to DC \u2013 Retirement & Identity<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federate","footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[49,48],"class_list":["post-107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essay-stub","tag-daily_notes","tag-reflection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1080,"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions\/1080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}