When many reach the retirement age, they want to embark on a final bucket list enjoyment journey.
I had a different adventure. I grew up in Malaysia to middle class parent. At school I was an average grade achiever but with high ambitions. Learning languages was my passion but behind it all I wanted to study law.
It was an impossible dream. So I branched out into my first degree in English in India. Then I wanted to follow my parents’ wishes and gained my next degree in Theology which was how I got to New Zealand as a student at the age of 23. After a stint in gaining my first job in a production factory making rubbish bags for $3.00 per hour, my interest in technology led me into a 25-year career in Information Technology. But my passion for language led me to pursue my Master’s degree in applied Linguistics at the age of 58 in Australia while I was teaching ESOL at Unitec. Then on a chance suggestion made by my colleague led me to branch sideways into the world of wine which I knew nothing about. I became the CEO of wine-searcher.com which is one of the world’s most used price comparison search engine for wines.
Retirement dawned on me at the age of 65 and I wondered what next. Sit at home watching TV and fade away, go on a world trip or simply do what many other retirees do – enjoy the end-of-life phase.
My boyhood dream came to haunt me. What about law studies? My heart said: “why not” but my mind said “you don’t have the brains anymore”. I said to my wife that I will die unfulfilled if I did not take up this challenge. So I enrolled on the four-year full-time law degree at Auckland University of Technology at the age of 69. It was a daunting challenge to study with school-leavers and the brainy lot who could recite Latin phrases as if it was their mother tongue!
In my third and fourth year I faced two interruptions. First, COVID19 hit me as it did everyone else.
Who would have guessed that Law studies of the staid and elite class will allow online class, let alone online law exams? Yes, Covid changed everything. I was determined to finish what I started but something else came to challenge me physically and emotionally.
Life is not without its challenges and barriers. On the final month of my final year my cardiologist did an ultra-sound of my heart as I was experiencing shortness of breath as was walking up the hill from Britomart to AUT at Wellesley Street. Something I had been doing easily over the previous three years. My cardiologist recommended that I go for an angiogram. They found 99% blockage on the right side of my heart and 80% block on my left. I was banned from returning home.
I underwent a quadruple heart bypass surgery. I still had to complete my final exams for the last three law papers. I was ordered to spend 4 weeks in recovery. I was in pain, deep cuts on my thigh and wound on my sternum. I lost 7 kilos and could hardly walk.
My will to finish what I started convinced me to complete all three papers.
Today I graduated with my Bachelor of Laws Degree with my young cohorts at the age of 73.
“No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” – The Bible
Age is no limit to life-long learning. I haven’t retired. I just got retyred. There is still some tread left. So I plan to provide Employment Advocacy services such as mediation, dispute resolution, predominantly to migrant employees who have problems with migrant employers. I have a passion to fight migrant exploitation in New Zealand. Sadly, most of the cases that come before the Employment Relations Authority are about migrant employers abusing fellow migrant employees.
What is your plan my fellow retirees?
You can put yourself to good use; gain more knowledge and reinvent yourself at any age.
Will you take up my challenge?
Adon Kumar