Today marks the exact twelfth anniversary of Jay stepping out of the workforce for an early retirement. On Sunday, October 19, 2014, he returned home from his very last shift after thirteen years of dedicated service at Covenant House Vancouver. Waiting on the counter to greet him was a celebratory cheesecake, vibrant balloons, and cards congratulating him on the milestone. That sweet afternoon welcome officially marked the end of his employment and inaugurated his new life as a gentleman of leisure.
My own turn arrived exactly three days later, on Wednesday, October 22nd. As my final cohort of students concentrated on their term-end examination at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, fellow instructors quietly entered the room bearing a farewell cake and a few mementos to remember my seventeen years teaching at BCIT, marking my definitive final exit from classrooms and computer labs.
That coordinated double-play in October of 2014 allowed both of us to chart our own unconventional course and step into permanent liberty. That was the week when decades of commutes, early morning alarms, lesson plans, and punch clocks simply vanished into thin air. The deliberate objective was always to cast off domestic predictable schedules entirely in favour of international departures, long rail journeys, and unhurried exploration across an open calendar. Twelve years down the road, looking back on that joint leap confirms that escaping early was sheer strategic brilliance. These past dozen years have undeniably been some of the premier years of our lives.