For pretty well all my career, the thought of the Big 'R' has been something I've ignored or hoped I could put off for as long as possible. However, I'm now approaching it with something approaching enthusiasm.
I'm going to miss flying aeroplanes terribly, and realise that every time I climb from a dull European winter's day and break clear of a solid band of stratus to find myself skimming along its top at 320 knots with a glorious blue sky above, or see the northern lights, or overfly the Himilayas at F330 and see the incredible peaks only 7000' below me, close enough to see the tracks of the mountain climbers...
However, (a bit like the 'two buckets' theorm beloved of many who've spent any time living the the Middle East), all the other rubbish that has all but overwhelmed our professional lives in between flights - and the seemingly implacable desire of management to ensure we have no quality of life in between flights, with utterly crazy and (surely, in the long term), self-destructive 'rest' policies, (both in-flight and between flights), makes me realise how lucky I am to be the age I am, approaching the Big 'R'.
The saddest aspect of all is the number of colleagues 20 years or more younger than I am who profess to envy me. When I was their age, I was lucky beyond belief - I wanted it to go on forever. Thanks in great part to the factors mentioned in the first post, too many of them see the job today as a sentance, something that must be endured to put snags and three veg on the table.