it is good that you are speaking of this subject, as it is never covered in flight manuals.
I stopped flying the line one day due to an injury...nothing terrible, but enough that I couldn't fly anymore.
No lead up to it, no thinking about it. Glad that my landing was on the better side of OK.
Done.
What do I miss? I don't miss crew scheduling...not one person.
I don't miss any of the mechanics...can't think of a single name...maybe one guy in STL went above and beyond and I will smile.
I do miss some of the flight attendents (girls) , the ones I think of were and probably still are genuinely nice, smart, and charming. (no I wasn't boffing them) Can't think of any of the boys.
I do miss chatting up with a pilot that I hadn't seen in years just walking through the terminal building.
I'll miss the human touches that some provided. I won't miss the well below Zero walkarounds in the snow.
I won't miss management who took my pension away while getting a bonus.
I won't miss how management got a retention bonus while thousands of my brothers were furloughed.
when I see a jet, I might smile...when I see a low cost carrier jet I blame them for many ills.
I haven't been in a plane for 5 years, yet I still know my emergency items by heart.
I promise you, that if you let it, the world of the ground has more delight than the world of the cockpit.