I don’t feel my age or my sexuality (gay man) define me, there are aspects of me. However I did recognise that as I retired at 65 yrs, 18 months ago, that life would change. The great thing is I have not missed work and I was aware I needed to take a positive approach to my future life and take the advice of my mother ‘ the need to make friends all your life’.
I have taken the opportunity of making use of the fantastic resource of the Birmingham LGBT in a walking group, literature group, coffee morning etc and met some interesting new people. I have not restricted myself to the LGBTQIA+ community as go to a couple of Tai Chi classes. One been going for the past six years and the other I discovered at my local Health and Wellbeing Centre in Shard End just from a passing comment from a friend I meet at local S hard End community events and this one is free!
As I grow older and I expect to make new connections and also reconnect to those friends my link has dropped to just a Christmas card to actual go and visit (started already). Although I said my sexuality does not define me I never want to feel I can’t be honest about mine in appropriate situations. So when I applied as a school governor I was open on this issue. Going back to my mother I was brought up to have respect for myself and others, treating everyone as an individual.
