::Golden (Mentor) Nuggets
By Linda A. Estep, who served as President of CalSPRA from 1998-2000.

It seems my “wisdom” has been reduced to a nugget. Cindy Sabato, a gazillion miles away in Guam, recently dropped into my email box requesting some words from me for the Golden Nugget. It has been awhile since I have written anything for CalSPRA and I am honored at the invitation to visit with you for a few lines.

I have been outside the CalSPRA loop for a while now, having retired from public schools in 1997 and from the private sector advising schools in 1999. People who were once colleagues are now my personal friends, and professional sharing has happily surrendered to exchanges of Christmas cards and an occasional call or lunch. Once in a while even spouses are included. It is a comfortable place to be.

What I have discovered is that retirement from the office and the board meeting is not the road to boredom. It is an avenue leading to opportunities that were once only detours during employment. For me, it is writing. I am a wordsmith. Through professional contacts when I was in the workforce juggling many of the responsibilities all of you so expertly manage, I now find myself occasionally writing articles for organizations I know and respect. It is fun answering the phone these days.

My background as a newspaper journalist feeds my curiosity and so topics for magazine pieces are now the bait for broader knowledge, and I can take or reject the bait. I have even edited and rewritten portions of a book on healthy eating written by a local nurse. Her grasp of body mass index was far greater than her grasp of writing for the masses. By combining our training we produced something useful. And that is satisfying with or without a paycheck.

Applying a talent needn’t be attached to monetary remuneration if you enjoy the talent. I am an avid golfer and have been for years. It has taken the country club 14 years to figure out that I might be a good candidate to write a column in the newsletter about women’s golf programs. I accepted that request without hesitation because I now have the time and I think I can do a credible job. There is no paycheck but there is great satisfaction. I wish there were more birdies.

At this point in my life, pride in work alternates with pride in family. Two young granddaughters ages 6 and 2 consume my heart. They live one mile away and they fight for my attention. In 10 years I will be fighting for theirs, but for now we are content to settle into the reading corner, awash in the words of children’s book authors. I read. They read. Soon I will write.

Do what you love. Stretch your talent beyond the boundaries of comfort and see how resilient you can be. Doors don’t automatically close at retirement. Some of them open even wider, an invitation to explore where once we could only wonder what was there.

Linda A. Estep lives in Fresno with her husband Pete and dog “Buddy.” Her email address is laestep@aol.com and she would love to hear from you.