This senior says retirees should stress less about finding a purpose in their golden years

TALES FROM THE GOLDEN AGE This senior says retirees should stress less about finding a purpose in their golden years BRENDA BOUW SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL PUBLISHED 58 MINUTES AGO Open this photo in gallery: Trish Exton-Parder, who retired in 2019 after 35 years at the Calgary Zoo, struggled early on to find her identity in retirement. TODD KOROL/THE GLOBE AND MAIL COMMENTS SHARE SAVE FOR LATER Listen to this article Learn more about audio Log in or create a free account to listen to this article. In Tales from the Golden Age, retirees talk about their spending, savings and whether life after work is what they expected. For more articles in this series, click here. Trish Exton-Parder, 64, Calgary I retired in 2019 at the age of 57 after a 35-year career in communications and media relations at the Calgary Zoo. I stayed in the job for a long time because it was a dynamic, story-filled organization that often brought new challenges. Although it was a satisfying career, it was also a 24/7 job at times and I wanted a more balanced lifestyle. The media landscape was also changing rapidly to a more digital focus – not that it’s a bad thing, but I still treasured the more traditional ways things were done, so it felt like a good time to leave. Retirement felt like a breath of fresh air at first, but only briefly. Instead of just chilling out for a while, I became a bit frantic about who I was without my role at the zoo. How can I just be Trish? My husband retired a couple of years after me. Together, we have three kids and two grandkids, and while they were very supportive of my decision to retire, it was challenging for them to see me struggle a bit with my identity. I felt like I needed to reinvent myself, so instead of calling it retirement, I called it a new stage of life. I opened myself up to new things such as volunteering and consulting. Then, during the pandemic, my friend Corinne Wilkinson and I decided to write a book called It’s Just a Hiccup: Reclaiming Your Identity, a light and practical guide for people struggling with their identity in retirement. When we wrote the book, we thought it could be one giant healing diary for us. It turned out better than we expected and has helped people work through this new stage of life. I continue to volunteer in retirement for organizations such as Dreams Take Flight and the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society. I also work as an extra on film sets such as My Life With the Walter Boys,…