Never Bored, Not Even for a Minute “I loved my career, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” Maribeth Gustafson says of her time serving the Department of Agriculture as a member of the U.S. Forest Service. “It was everything I could’ve asked for in a career, but when the time came to retire, I was ready for the next chapter of my life.” MARIBETH GUSTAFSON’S HAUTE RETIREMENT
Everyone approaches retirement differently. Some enter it with trepidation, while others have no trouble transitioning to the next stage of life. Maribeth certainly falls into the latter camp. In fact, she’s approached retirement with such zeal that she’s hardly had time to catch her breath. “I’ve never been bored a minute in my life,” she says. “Someday, I may do the typical retirement thing and sit down and think about what I’d like to do, but for the time being, I’m enjoying living. I hike and ski regularly, and I have no trouble filling up my days.” While Maribeth may not have some grand plan for her retirement, she knew one adventure would likely be a part of it. “For about 15 years, I’ve dreamt of completing the Haute Route,” she says. “Recently, I had the chance to do it with three other women around the same age as me. It was an opportunity we were never going to pass up.” The route, which runs from Chamonix, France, to Zermatt, Switzerland, involves plenty of elevation changes and rough terrains. Undaunted, Maribeth and her group chose a self-guided route that involved hiking every day and stopping off every night at huts and hostels along the trail. If that weren’t enough, she hiked the Bernese Oberland trail right after finishing the Haute Route. Every day during the trip, Maribeth saw something new and wonderful. “During most hikes,” she notes, “you have a pretty good idea of where you are and how long you have because you go up and you go down. On this hike, every step was new. We did no backtracking, so we never knew what to expect. At the end of the Haute Route, for example, we turned a corner and all of a sudden were in full view of the Matterhorn. For the entirety of our descent into Zermatt, we could see the mountain towering in the distance. It was a vista unlike any I’d ever seen.” Obviously, Maribeth is not struggling to find meaning, adventure, and purpose after work. She believes everyone can experience the same. “You don’t change as a person just because you retire,” she says. “Personally, I’ve never lacked for enthusiasm about life, but if you struggle to envision what your retirement will look like, start with finding what it is you love. Once you know that, pursue it. Now’s the time for us to be a little selfish.” Maribeth’s last point is an important one, especially for federal employees. When people make a career of serving others, it can be hard to put the spotlight on themselves. But what is retirement if not a chance to do the things you’ve always wanted to?
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