I recently ended a long career. As I have entered retirement, my wife has started calling me her "turtle" because I have slowed way down. It's funny because I accept it. I am purposefully trying to slow things down and take things easy.
I had a career in a field that is known to be high stress and I've been on for a really long time. And so as I purposefully not be in that mode, it's fascinating. I walk slower. That's partially because my joints hurt, but that's life.
I make decisions slower because I don't want to make a snap judgment and then get upset about it. I spent most of my life making snap judgments and fast decisions and then having to rush to fix it or rush to get something done for somebody else because they had missed a deadline.
And I've just really reached that point where I'm tired of that. But it's funny because I've grown to like hang drum music. Sometimes it's called a handpan and the instruments look like big turtles. I find that hilarious because I've always liked the turtle as a symbol.
So I kind of like the moniker although I don't want the negative side of it. A stranger passing by me one day outside of a hospital referred to me as "professor" and I really liked that - it made me want to go out and buy a sport coat with elbow patches just for kicks. I had a teacher in high school that wore one of those and carried a pipe. He would have the pipe in his mouth in class and drank Earl Grey tea all day long. We didn't call him "professor" but he sure was taking on that persona as a teacher.
But I don't mind being called a turtle or professor. I've gone fast for a long time and I still do, just in my own way.
