Helping others will also help you

Volunteering in retirement offers health benefits and it's never too early to plan for it.

- Sumiko Tan Chief Columnist & Senior Editor, Publications

If the Covid-19 pandemic taught me anything about myself, it's that cooking's not my thing. When lockdown hit in 2020, I threw myself into full novice cook mode. Potato leek gratin, mushroom herb polenta, zucchini and ciabatta frittata, beer-battered bread, a carousel of cakes and cookies. My phone's photo gallery still bears witness to my frenzied culinary adventures that year. And then, just like that, I stopped.

Overnight, my enthusiasm evaporated. I haven't baked since. The truth is, I don't like being in the kitchen.

That realisation came as a disappointment because cooking had always seemed like one of those hobbies I'd pursue later in life.

The pandemic was a foretaste of retirement, and it wasn't what I expected. Classic retirement-friendly hobbies, I discovered, didn't float my boat.

For a while, I flirted with begonias, philodendrons and alocasias, enviously scrolling the Instagram feeds of gardeners. But the passion for gardening was short-lived and superficial.

I tried to re-learn the piano, going so far as to order key stickers to help me read music. I lost interest. I installed the Duolingo app to pick up a new language. That lasted barely a week.

On the bright side, I now have a clearer idea of the things I don't like to do. But on the downside, I feel I've been robbed of the novelty of trying them out during retirement when I have time on my hands.

And so the vast wasteland of retirement looms. How am I going to fill the blank space left by work? How will I spend (kill) my time?

I find meaning in structure, and for all my adult life, work and the office have provided that, as well as friendships, a sense of purpose, fun and belonging.

When I retire — and that day will come — all of this will disappear. Isn't it wiser to start preparing for that transition now, while I still have the energy to explore how I want to fill that space, and to lay the groundwork for what comes next?