What do you call a newly retired professor?

Happy? Bored? In the way?

On holiday?

Switching off the computer for the last time is weird. The day after retirement, everything is disabled: email, network access, software. Switching off the brain is a lot harder. I still have a paper or two to write but suddenly I find that I have to buy a new computer and pay for Microsoft (admittedly for the first time ever). I need to take a deep breath before I buy the licence for that statistics package I’ve taken for granted all these years.

I’ve managed to wrestle my 20-year-old mobile number away from the industrial complex that is the University for continuity. Apparently, all I needed to do was to find the right person to ask but, blimey, that was hard. I still haven’t decided if keeping my number is a good or a bad thing. Do I want to be found? Time will tell.

Forwards and backwards

I tend not to dwell on things past: onwards and upwards is my approach. But, it’s hard not to reflect on your career when you retire. I’ve found that memories suddenly jump into my brain at odd moments: events, people, conferences. It’s surprising how many involve alcohol.

It’s been a blast. Working with the sports engineers at Sheffield Hallam University has been the pride of my life. It always seemed to me that we were a group of explorers making our way in the world, enjoying the journey and wondering exactly where we were going. It turned out to be the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre in Attercliffe.

I can safely say that, without us, sports engineering across the world wouldn’t be where it is today.

Well done guys!

So, what do you call a retired professor?

Apparently, it’s Emeritus, latin for ‘completed one’s service’.

That’s it, then: I’m done.

Or, maybe not…