When I returned home after a heart transplant in January 2019, I had every intention of continuing to work. I was 70 and running a non-profit for educating less privileged students. But the going was getting harder with immunosuppressants and other medication to take through the day. I loved my work but realised my health was more important. Retirement was the only option.
My decision to retire after a 48-year-long career was unique. It was necessary to reinvent myself so idleness wouldn’t “kill” me. It rekindled my childhood ambition of becoming a writer. I had written before, but desultorily. I set up a schedule and wrote for four hours daily, enjoying every minute as ideas jostled in my head, seeking urgent expression. I began writing for national publications. In January 2020, I set my sights on publishing in international publications. After much struggle, a magazine bought my first article. Then followed rejections like soldiers advancing in a file.
Rejections troubled me. I felt dejected. I even considered quitting. But being a fighter, I introspected and realised I would have to learn how to write the content wanted by publications. The difference in cultures was unbridgeable.
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The decision to write on health and help others understand disease took root. In October 2020, while COVID-19 raged, I enrolled for a certified course in health writing, working diligently on every assignment. I am taking baby steps, but feel delighted foreign magazines have published two more articles. Writing keeps me supremely happy. Daily, I learn new stuff and don’t feel lonely because writers, editors and readers make up my new community.
New beginnings are possible at any age; everything is from within us.
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