“Endings into beginnings”: learning, development and narrative reopening in dealing with retirement

Abstract

Retirement is often considered as the end of a professional life and the transition to a new phase of life. It can bring to a more peaceful life, trigger to vulnerability, or can be characterized by new engagements. Given the changes that entails, why should it also not be an occasion for learning and development in itself? We approach this is sue from a first-person perspective, through a persons’ diary writing. We rely on a longitudinal case study, part of a project on vulnerability in the life-course supported by LIVES (Swiss Center of Expertise in Life Course Research). Our diary project fo cuses on 3 on-line diaries written during a 20-year period. Here, we analyze the diary of a man anticipating, experiencing, and reflecting upon his professional retirement. We thus examine the process of sense-making by which the diarist interprets his ex perience of retirement and ageing. The results show a narrative of hope and openness to the new opportunities for learning and development fostered by the retirement sit uation. This is not exempt from a narrative of struggle and suffering, associated with very difficult personal moments, including a serious period of depression and anxie ty. We conclude that this retired person is very far from being that “retired from the world” man who “passes time” until he dies. We discuss the implication of this study.