Redefining Retirement: Kid in a Candy Store

When she retired from being a band director and general music teacher in 2004, Janine Ptasinski was in no way ready to slow down or let go of her creative spirit. In fact, she decided to double down on her artistic efforts, taking on creative endeavors she had never before explored.

Since she focused her education and teaching career on instrumental music, Janine never had much opportunity to try singing. Retirement changed all that, and she first joined the choir at St. John Cantius Church, a historic baroque church in the heart of Chicago that regularly offers concerts and music events performing chamber music, opera, instrumental music, and other wide-ranging musical styles, in addition to their Sunday Mass choral arrangements. The choir produces recordings, and Janine can be heard on several of them singing and/or playing the flute; they even signed a contract with Sony International Recordings, which technically makes her an international recording artist!

Bitten by the singing bug, Janine decided to take private vocal lessons with instructors at Columbia College where she learned art and opera songs that allowed her to sing in German, French, Italian, Polish, and Latin, which earned her a solo in a workshop performance of “The Incurable Invalid” by Moliere. This led to her performing other solo shows at senior clubs, nursing homes, and park districts, and eventually joining the Niles Metropolitan Chorus, a group that regularly performs choral music and oratorios at various venues around the northern Chicago suburbs.

Redefining Retirement: A Whole New Ballgame

After retiring from teaching in 2007, Joel Levin took on a project paying homage to his first career as a ballpark vendor, which he did from 1962-1976. Together with co-author and amateur photographer Lloyd Rutzky, he has written Wrigley Field’s Amazing Vendors, a book that shares photographs and stories of the unique cast of characters that sold goods at Wrigley Field during the 1970s.

Having authored three books during his years as a classroom teacher—including math workbooks and How to Get a Job in Education—Joel is no stranger to the world of writing and publishing. So when looking for something to keep him busy in retirement, returning to writing just made sense. His years of working in ballparks are full of fond memories and interesting tales, and along with Lloyd’s collection of candid photos, he knew that something special could come out of that collaboration.

Wrigley Field’s Amazing Vendors is being published by Arcadia Publishing as a part of their “Images of Modern America” series, and will be released on July 9, 2018. Joel is thrilled to be able to share this tribute to his former ballpark colleagues with the world, and is especially excited about the photo of President Obama awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Chicago Cubs’ legend Ernie Banks in the Oval Office that is included in the book.

Redefining Retirement: A New Artistic Method

It’s not unusual for retired teachers to tap into their artistic sides once retirement provides them with the free time to do so. After retiring in 2012, Cindy Roder decided to try her hand at a new type of creative outlet: Zentangle drawing.

What is Zentangle drawing? It’s a method that is easy to learn and is naturally calming (creating a zen-like state of mind) where anyone can create beautiful, intricate drawings made of structured patterns (called tangles). Zen + tangle = Zentangle.

Zentangles are created with combinations of dots, lines, curves, and orbs, and every design is unplanned, so the artist can focus on each individual stroke and not worry about the final result. There are no erasers when making Zentangles, and unintended marks can take your design in a new and exciting direction. You can learn more about the Zentangle Method and how it works at zentangle.com.

Redefining Retirement: And Renaming It, Too

After retiring in 2007 following 34 years of service with CPS as a speech/language pathologist, Carolyn Scribner didn’t just redefine retirement, she renamed it: re-wirement.

When thinking about what to do with her newfound free time, Carolyn decided there could be nothing better than simply reconnecting with the people, places, and things she loves. During her first year of re-wirement she was able to travel frequently to Little Rock to take care of her aging parents, which was perfectly, preciously timed as she was able to spend a significant amount of time with her mother before she passed in 2009.

Ever the educator, Carolyn has always taught in her church, and re-wirement has provided more time to dedicate to those teachings, as well as taking Bible classes for her own fulfillment.

Redefining Retirement: An Enlightening Second Career

Before retiring in 2012, Elizabeth Landerholm had a diverse teaching career that included teaching preschool through third grade, supervising preschool student teachers, and running an Even Start after-school program. She loved working with and helping people—a good trait for a teacher!—and wanted to find a way to continue doing that even though she was retiring from teaching. Her quest eventually put her on the path of energy healing.

Energy healing combines ancient shamanic wisdom teachings with current nutrition, biology, and neuroscience practices to create a holistic approach to healing the human body and mind. Fascinated by this new way to help people with their physical and emotional issues, Elizabeth decided to get certified as an Energy Medicine Practitioner and Health Coach, and in 2015 completed the three-year certificate program at the Four Winds’ Light Body School in Joshua Tree, CA.

Now back in Illinois, she has started her own energy healing practice—Sacred Star Path—and is using her training to help clients alleviate stress and pain, resolve relationship issues, and find new purpose and happiness in their lives. While there is plenty to love about her second career, Elizabeth is most excited by her ability to help people make meaningful life changes faster than she could when she was teaching and advising students.

Redefining Retirement: Portrait of an Artist

With a natural talent for art—particularly drawing portraits—in her youth Migdalia Galarza dreamed of becoming an artist, but like many others, felt the pressure to find the stability of a “real” job. She began working as a substitute teacher for CPS, took night classes to earn her certification (which she achieved in 1993), then worked as a full time teacher until she retired from Sabin Magnet Elementary School in 2012.

While she enjoyed her teaching career, Migdalia never lost touch with her inner artist, and would incorporate art into her classroom whenever possible, such as having her students design posters illustrating the cyclical changes in nature and create comic strips to tell stories from their history lessons.

Following retirement, she slowly started tapping into her own artistic drive again, experimenting with mediums like pen and ink, pastels, oil on canvas, and even decoupage woodwork, before focusing in on acrylic paint on canvas. She dedicates time every week to her work, finding inspiration from her love of nature and her passion about social issues, and is continuously refining her techniques and finding her voice.

Redefining Retirement: If Music be the Food of Love…

After retiring from Claremont Math and Science Academy in 2012, Joy Reeves was ready for a new challenge. Her grandson had recently taken up playing the saxophone, and seeing how much fun he was having learning a musical instrument, Joy knew what she wanted to do with her newfound free time.

[image:552, image right]Digging out the clarinet her daughter had played while in high school, Joy began taking private music lessons. After about a year, her instructor pointed out that nothing can really compare to playing music with a group, and pointed her toward the New Horizons Band, an ensemble that welcomes adults of all levels of musical proficiency to hone their skills together as a group.

Though slightly apprehensive of joining a group after just a year of musical experience, Joy was glad she followed her instructor’s advice and took the leap. Not only did she learn a lot from the band, but she also made a bunch of new friends. In addition to rehearsing twice a week with the whole group, she also regularly practices with just the clarinet section to work on their parts. Whenever the music proves to be a bit too challenging for a beginner, her director and fellow bandmates are happy to offer tips and advice. The band regularly performs at schools, churches, and other local venues, and Joy has found that there’s nothing quite like “the joy of playing before an audience as part of a well-rehearsed group with a common purpose.”

Redefining Retirement: Gathering No Moss

Nineteen years ago this week, Glenn Anderson left his teaching job at Taft High School, unsure of what came next. Several friends and colleagues who had retired moved south and just sort of faded away, and at a spry 56 years old, with his mind and body still relatively intact, Glenn decided that wasn’t the life for him, and regarded the end of his teaching career not as retirement, but “leaving with a pension.”

Since then, life has been anything but quiet for Glenn. Having always been handy and enjoying working with his hands, he had a small welding and blacksmith shop that leaving teaching allowed him to expand. Married to an avid gardener and living in a house over 100 years old, there are consistently tractors, rototillers, and other appliances needing attention and maintenance, so his mechanical skills are put to good use both in and outside of his welding shop.

Not satisfied to be constrained to just one set of skills, Glenn decided to help out a friend who took over the operation of a local café by cooking breakfast for its patrons five days a week for a while. Also a lifelong musician, he has found creative release in playing banjo with multiple Dixieland bands in the area of Wilmot, WI.

Redefining Retirement: Art Helps Heal

After teaching art at Walt Disney Magnet School for more than 30 years, Anne Hollenbeck quickly sought out a new artistic outlet when she retired in 2010, and began volunteering at Lurie Children’s Hospital.

[image:551, image right]While developing arts and crafts projects for the patients at Lurie Children’s, Anne noticed that only the younger children were interested in participating. Additionally, the generous donations the hospital received primarily consisted of toys, crayons, and games that weren’t exactly enticing to the older kids and teenagers there.

Inspired, Anne teamed up with fellow retired teacher Shirley Forpe to develop an art program for hospitalized teens who are long-term in-patients, and Art Helps Heal was born.

Redefining Retirement: Going Wild

A popular answer when asking a new retiree what they plan to do with their time is “travel.” But Kathy Konopasek has taken the concept of traveling when retired to a whole new level.

[image:549, image right]After a 30-year career with CPS where she took on many roles—teacher, librarian, assistant principal, principal—Kathy was saddened at the thought of retiring and found herself in tears when signing her retirement paperwork in Winter 2016. She immediately signed up to substitute teach in order to ease the transition out of working full-time, and a winter trip to Mexico with a fellow CPS retiree certainly helped to ease the pain, too!

An avid traveler when she was in college and teaching abroad in her early career, Kathy has always been an explorer, but the time commitment required for the CPS leadership roles she eventually took on made extensive travel a bit trickier. Bitten by the travel bug once again following her Mexico getaway, Kathy decided to make her next adventure a big one, and went to South Africa and Zimbabwe for 19 days.

Redefining Retirement with Dianne Yonkers

As a school psychologist and special education administrator with 35 years of experience mostly on the West Side, Dianne Yonkers knows better than most the difficulty that life transitions can cause. She has helped countless students transition from elementary to high school and beyond, and well understood the importance of planning and organizing her post-retirement life.

[image:569, image right]A 2006 retiree, she knew that after a busy career, she wouldn’t be happy with a leisurely retirement. Instead, she has made a second career out of volunteer and community service work. She currently holds a position as a Director at the Retired Teachers Association of Chicago, volunteers at West Side high school and at her church. She is an officer in her Delta Kappa Gamma chapter and recently has become active in Exodus World Services, an organization that helps refugees make the transition from their native lands to the USA.

“Exodus works with other agencies and helps fill in the gaps in the transition period for new refugees,” she explains. “Exodus finds and furnishes apartments for refugees and provide six months’ worth of household goods. In addition, Exodus volunteers serve as a social safety net, helping refugees learn what it means to be an American. We help get their children enrolled in schools, find doctors, provide practice speaking English, and provide support and networking to help the new Americans navigate the transition to an entirely different culture. We help families understand what it really means to pursue the American Dream.”

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