- David Swinson
- Nov 1
If you know me, you can be forgiven for wondering what's going on: why am I suddenly embracing social media and self publicity?
Well, on (or about) my 59th birthday during the summer of 2023, I received a jolly message from the Teachers' Pension Service, congratulating me on entering my final year as a teacher. I must admit it came as a bit of a surprise. Mostly pleasant but also slightly unexpected. Of course I had thought about retirement but it didn't seem immediate. I still had a daughter at university and surely I was too young...
It did start me thinking, though. Could I retire and might it actually be a good idea? I had, for the most part, loved my job, and the friends that came with it. But my family had had to make sacrifices, I had missed them at important moments and it might just be that there is a life beyond. If I was honest with myself I also felt exhausted - not so much physically but definitely mentally. I'd run out of ideas, started to feel weighed down by the responsibility I had previously thrived on and (whisper it) perhaps I had started to feel my age. That last point needs some clarification. I had always promised myself that I would go before others thought I need to. Had I managed that? Who knows but it's important to give the youngsters their chance and things change; things must and should change.
I took the plunge. I've never been great with money so all the calculations were made on the back of an old, small and rather grubby envelope. Three big questions had to be answered. Could I afford it? Would I miss it all and what would I do?
The answer to all three ended up being pretty much the same: absolutely no idea.
I did it and started to find out. I should add that Trinity School kept me on the books as a advisor/helper and this gave me both some financial ballast and, just as importantly for me, a regular link with friends and former pupils.
Bits of work came in. Judging competitions here and there, playing the organ for church services and taking rehearsals for some adult choirs. It was fun. I could do those things and they came without the baggage of responsibility and the stress attached to that. I bumbled through a year without any plan. I earned a very useful amount of money which supported my daughters' social lives and I saw family and friends much more frequently.
Life was good and here we come to the nub. A year on, I realised that I was establishing a busy (and partly necessary) freelance music career, only about forty years after most other freelance musicians.
It's so different at my age than it is for a twenty-five year old (another blog might discuss that) but I am conscious that the modern world requires good communication and publicity, not least because people are interested and want to find out more. So, here we are, this is for those who want to find out more!