The end is nigh

In the 2018-2019 annual report, when reflecting on my career, I noted that I had professionally achieved a lot more than what I thought was possible. I wondered about the years ahead.

I wrote in that report: “I suppose the decade ahead will simply unfold.”

The events since then have served as a wonderful reminder, yet again, that life is what happens when we are busily planning for it.

I never imagined that 2020 would be dominated by COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter. Everything else, positive and negative experiences alike, fade into the distance in the rear-view mirror.

And I definitely did not imagine back in June 2019 that I will be served with a layoff notice in March 2021.

But, hey, life is what happens when we are busily planning for it.

The end of yet another academic year leaves me wondering, "what next?"

The last time that I felt clueless about the future was when I joined the engineering program, back in 1981.  All I knew was that I didn't want my professional life to be in engineering.  But I had no idea what exactly it was that I wanted to do either.

However, in that phase of life, I still had things to do until I figured out what came after.  I had classes to go to, exams to clear, and be a dickhead teenager.  And I did all that over four years.

Now, the unstructured 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on the other hand, looms large.  There are only so many hours that a man can walk, or play bridge.

"I am sure others have told you this," the daughter prefaced before telling me what she wanted to tell me.  "You have another chapter in you.  I don't know what it is, but I am sure you will find out."

I will have to wait for that chapter to write itself.  After all, life is what happens when we are busily planning for it!