As the date approached that would signal the end of his working career the man contemplated his situation.
He had worked for thirty-nine years and now faced a world where everything he had known was going to be no more.
He was trepidatious about his looming future.
The void he faced he had long thought about and was initially going to enjoy the idea of not going to work. Most of all, deciding what he might do day-to-day was very attractive.
At least he thought that was going to be his plan, but there was a nagging thought in the back of his mind that left him undecided.
Even though he felt on top of his game, his use by date was approaching and retirement was the right thing for him.
But he seriously wondered if he might be somebody again.
Morpethroad 
Very apt description of the mixture of anticipation and apprehension I am sure I’ll feel when I reach retirement!
Thanks Gabriella, much more real than I want to admit just yet.
🙂
I look forward to the day when I can become somebody again. I always hoped I would be able to have one of those lives where my career didn’t feel like work. Alas, it wasn’t to be.
Firstly Thanks for following my blog Dolly and I hope you enjoy the posts I publish each week. I am saddened to read of your desire to be some one.Like doesn’t always turn out as we hoped. Even so and mine certainly hasn’t so its meant a re-evaluation of where I sit in the world. Though I have been lucky in that I have a great job and love every day i go to work. I think I am in a minority in that respect. Good luck and please call by again.
I empathize with the character, but I can’t help but feeling like you’ve told us about him rather than shown us through the use of dialogue or narrative. So, the difference between someone summarizing the meaning of a character’s journal entry as opposed to telling us a story about the character.
Maybe you could show him going to his retirement party? Cleaning out his desk? Watching the people who used to come into his office to ask questions go to the ‘new guy’? There are a lot of options. 🙂
JMO YMMV
Thanks yours is an excellent comment.All you have to say is valid and yes I could have done what you say I could have. Yes there are always options and in writing this piece my intention was to try and touch on his ‘undecidedness’. Central to this was his fear of becoming a nobody when in fact he was within his workplace a somebody. That concern is the fuel for him being undecided. A nagging thought that he may be giving up more than he will ever get back in retirement. People I know who have retired have this worry, but they eventually come to embrace the life of no work and a pension. Thanks so much for your criticism.
You captured the suspended emotions so well, all the anxiety and hope and doubt. Well done!!
Thank you Angela for your comment. There’s a touch of truth in it all.