Since changes to the retirement age announced this week mean I will have to work until I am 70, I figure there is still plenty of time to work out what I want to do when I grow up. It is actually something worth considering because for the large part career moves to date have been decided by accident or circumstance but with precious little planning or forethought. My present job - a university lecturer - started as a way of earning extra pocket money while on maternity leave. My "baby" is now 16. Somewhere along the line I completed a Masters degree and forgot to leave. The thing is that there are doubtless an infinite number of career options I have never even considered. For example - not once have I tried to see if I could squeeze my body through a tennis racquet while balancing on a beam see-sawing on a pipe. I know. How small minded of me. Who knows, that might be something I could be good at (well I know that unless they start making really, really big tennis racquets, I can pretty much rule that one out). Adam, the circus acrobat come street performer, made it look easy at South Bank this afternoon but my guess it will be considerably less so when he reaches 70. And that's the thing. Not all jobs are created equal. Some jobs you could doubtless carry on working in well into your 7th decade. Others not so much. But perhaps I shouldn't be worried. My father, three of my four grandparents, an aunt and a cousin were all dead well before the age of 70. I should be concentrating more on reaching the magic three score years and 10 rather than considering who will be paying the cheque. Besides I still have plenty of time to work out what I'm going to do when I grow up. Hopefully. Now where's a tennis racquet ...
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