Evelyn tells us about her plans when she retires at the end of February, like writing her life memoirs and taking a van trip across the country.
Alessandra: Hello friends, welcome to another episode of Madre Mía! I am Alessandra.
Veronica: Hi, I’m Verónica!
Evelyn: And I’m Evelyn.
Alessandra: Today's topic is retirement and Oma's plans when she retires in February, right?
Evelyn: Yes my love. I am going to retire in 13 days, 13 working days is all that I have left, it seems a lie. It is a very emotional matter. I sent a letter the other day to all the judges in my superior court where I have worked 17 years in a row. And when I began to receive the responses, I became-- I was very moved by what they were saying about me, and how they loved me, how they respected me, how--
Frank: Legend.
Evelyn: One said, "A legend is retiring." Go figure! And he is a judge with whom I have spoken a lot in his office, more in his office than in the courtroom because I had things about politics to discuss with him, right? And very dear the judge, and well. And others too, giving me messages, sending me messages about how well I served them with my team of all the interpreters, and thanks to me, well, my team is professional, phenomenal, they provide a service that is difficult to provide, and things. Well, therefore very emotional.
Alessandra: Yes, they will miss you a lot.
Evelyn: So they say. But you know how, how are all things in life. Life goes on, someone will replace me, and then they will continue from there. And I imagine it will be someone from my own team, I hope, because they are all very competent, and two especially are very competent and I have trained them-- I have guided them, I am leaving them a lot of information so that they can follow the same steps and things in addition. From the technical point of view, like the point of view of policies and regulations and so on.
Veronica: That was going to say, to hope for your replacement to follow in your footsteps.
Evelyn: Exactly.
Alessandra: But no one can replace you.
Veronica: Yes.
Evelyn: Thank you my love, very sweet.
Veronica: Yes, more than work is the personality and the-- the love of the work and that comes out, it shows in the quality of work you do.
Evelyn: He told me that same thing, a judge told me. He told me, I mean-- well, I shouldn't talk like that because I'm complimenting myself. It's not a thing one should do, is it? But hey, well, well with many I made very good friendships and professional contacts. Well, we’ll see. The state administration of justice office has told me, they propose to me to return in six months as a freelancer to continue interpreting, only interpreting, right? And I said well, delighted with life, I love that, I love being in the courts, and well, observing, learning, interpreting all the different cases that are presented, which is very interesting. If then listen to the law, no? From the part of the judges, the lawyers, all those talks and discussions are a-- they leave you with an experience that is unmatched.
Alessandra: You've been doing more admini-- how do you say?
Evelyn: Administration. A lot of administrative work, yes, in the last few months. More administrative work than interpretation for COVID.
Veronica: Yeah, and now you can do, I mean, well, like you said in six months, just do acting.
Evelyn: Exactly. But I have to continue to practice, especially simultaneous interpretation because that requires-- that requires the mind to be very prepared, very ready for the concentration that it takes to be able to do that. 125 words per minute that is-- not an easy task, and I don't want to lose that skill.
Veronica: Sure, and well, for the mind to follow--
Evelyn: Very good for the mind, yes.
Alessandra: How do you feel? Excited?
Evelyn: Well, now the part, that part, the part of the fear of leaving work is already passing me because my biggest fear is that I miss the job, that I feel I miss everyone, everyone, the staff, the judges, the attorneys I've known through so many years. I'm going to miss all of that, but I'm also training myself to forget about it because I have to retire sooner or later. If not, I will not be able to do what I want to do, other things.
Veronica: And what is that you want to do?
Evelyn: Well, the first thing I want to do is write, write my memoirs as I promised Alessandra years ago. I never went beyond the part where I was born, and that I was born in Medellín, Colombia. That's how far I got. Because I started to write by hand, and I said, “How am I going to write the memories of my life of 78 years by hand?” It is a monumental and impossible task, it would end at 100 years. Because every time I think about what I want to write, I become more--
Veronica: Ambitious.
Evelyn: Well, more ambitious, yes. The more I think about my memories, the more ambitious I become in what I want to write and what I want to do with those memories. For example, I want to add photos throughout the story of my memories, add a photo here, a photo there. For example, photos in Lima, photos in Caracas, photos of my first communion. And therefore, imagine, that turns into a huge thing, doesn't it? And maybe I'm going to have to calm down a bit about that, but upstairs in one of the rooms I have a display of wall-to-wall photographs, hundreds, hundreds of photos, and I say well, I'm going to include all that, impossible, impossible. Then I'm going to have to plan something a little more, or a little less--
Veronica: Ambitious?
Evelyn: Yes.And so, let's see where, where, where that takes me.
Alessandra: But you're still going to include some photos, right?
Evelyn: Yes, quite a few. Like I say, I don't want to leave anything out. And the story will be something-- a very sincere story, right? Because my life has been one of very good things, very sad things, and I don't want to leave anything out. I want it to be-- I want my memories to be sincere, that I'm going to measure, measure, right? The concepts, and measuring what I am saying through what I do. That is my first plan. And then the other plan that I have, that Opa and I have, is to take a trip across the United States, by car. I am a romantic of this country, to me-- I love the United States. It is a beautiful land, it has its beautiful mountains, its parks, its towns. I want to know everything, I don't know how long it's going to take us to do this-- carry out this adventure, but I want to go, for example, to places like West Virginia, I want to go to the Carolinas, I want to know the-- I want to see a lot. And maybe it will take us to California, and to Utah, Nevada, all those places, since I love to see the wild horses, the mustangs. As I told you, I am a romantic, maybe because since I was a child I liked them, I loved western movies, cowboys, cowboys and that. And that in me was a tremendous influence for me in loving that part of the country. And of course when we were children my father took us a lot every time we came to the United States, when my father would change countries, we would go a lot to California and we would go to Yosemite and well, we very much enjoyed those beautiful lands there.
Alessandra: I love your idea@
Veronica: Yes.
Alessandra: That would be great.
Veronica: The plan sounds really cool.
Evelyn: Yes, I have, I have many, I have many plans. I also have my guitar that I have had for a while, I started taking classes, I want to finish that too. But I had to sacrifice my nails, so that too, right? And then painting, you know, I have so many things to paint, that I want to paint the way I liked before and, well. I think I'm going to have to live to be 120 to do everything I want to do.
Veronica: You can incorporate, that is, let's say the guitar and the painting with the--
Evelyn: Sure, yes, yes.
Veronica: You can do that during the trip, paint scenes of what you are seeing.
Evelyn: It's a perfect idea, to do all of that. Perfect, perfect.
Veronica: Play the guitar, your paintings.
Evelyn: Well, like a hippie out there in the desert.
Alessandra: You need a van, a hippie van.
Evelyn: Yes, a van. Opa was thinking of renting something out there in the west somewhere and getting on with that. Let's see, let's see, I still have to plan it. I haven't started planning yet. But I'm between memories and trips, I don't know how we're going to do it, how I'm going to do all that at the same time, but hey, we'll see.
Veronica: Well, on the trip you can also, you can do your writing during the trip. It doesn't have to be one first and the other second.
Evelyn: Yes, what I am going to do now with all this technology that we have is that I am going to dictate, I am not going to write the memories, I am going to dictate them. And then, well, print them and correct them and that way everything will go faster.
Veronica: Sure, sure.
Evelyn: Because now, for example, with my iPad, this iPad Air that I have, I can dictate perfectly.
Alessandra: Would you rather drive the car, or are you going to--
Veronica: Or are you going to be a passenger?
Evelyn: I think we will combine, we will take turns. But when Opa drives, or I get really mad at him for the way he drives sometimes. I tell you here among us, I tell you that he drives like an old man, like an old man.
Alessandra: And you don’t?
Evelyn: And that makes me desperate, sometimes he goes 25 hours per hour when the speed limit is 80, well.
Alessandra: It will take 20 years to get to California.
Evelyn: Yes yes yes, exactly. But at the same time as a passenger, I see more, right? One more thing, then I have to see how I'm going to balance that, or decide not to worry about how Opa drives and enjoy the scenery.
Alessandra: I want to do that one day.
Evelyn: Join us!
Alessandra: Oh, yeah? No--
Evelyn: Join us. What we could do is rent a very large RV with many beds, those that become chairs during the day and are benches by day and beds at night or something like that.
Alessandra: I would love to.
Evelyn: Imagine, how rich it would be, right? Take a trip like that all together.
Alessandra: And I can make a video of the experience too.
Evelyn: Oh, that would be great. How great it would be if we had the time, right? Because we don't know how long it will take us to make the crossing. What if I take photos and you can later join them in a kind of photo-video or something like that, something like that.
Alessandra: Yes, I can do that.
Evelyn: Yes, now the only thing that-- what I don't like about the trip, what I always think is that I will miss you a lot. But of course we can do what we are doing now, make a video, we can even do, Alessandra, another podcast, another interview about the trip.
Alessandra: Oh yeah yeah, of course.
Evelyn: Right?
Veronica: Sure.
Evelyn: They are telling what, what we are seeing, and it would be-- I also send them photos. Of course that's not on the podcast, but we can talk.
Veronica: Sure.
Alessandra: Yes, several episodes of--
Evelyn: From experiences, yes. I want it to be an experience trip, that's what I want. It is not a matter of seeing beautiful things, only. I want to see the-- I want to know the soul of the country. I want to see people, I want to see how they live, I want to see a lot, a lot, a lot, not only what you see in big cities, right? What what--
Alessandra: Not only touristy things.
Evelyn: Exactly, exactly. But what exists in the country relative to the ways in which people live.
Alessandra: Well, now we're going to do the "What do you prefer?" Part. And these questions relate to work, today's topic, or retirement. Well, this question is a bit easy, but what do you prefer: more time in the day or more money?
Evelyn: More time in the day.
Alessandra: Yes me too. Every day I say, “I need more time because I have a lot to do, a lot I want to do,” and it is difficult.
Evelyn: There’s not enough time.
Alessandra: We work all day from eight to five and after that, I want to exercise, and then dinner, and then I'm tired.
Evelyn: Of course yes. Yes, no no no, definitely time is so valuable. Life is short and time is what we need most to be able to live a full life and we need a lot of time to do so.
Veronica: Yes, I agree, I think longer.
Alessandra: Okay, what do you prefer: working more hours a day but fewer days, or working fewer hours a day but more days? That's when you were working.
Evelyn: Well, I would have liked-- the idea of working longer hours and fewer days is one thing I would have liked. I wouldn't have minded doing that, but I wouldn't have been able to have that opportunity or that option because the courts work five days a week seven hours a day, that's why not-- I never had that option.
Alessandra: Yes, no, this question is ideal. Not realistic?
Evelyn: Yes, yes yes.
Veronica: Yes, I prefer to work more hours a day and fewer days. So you have more days off.
Alessandra: Yes, me too because the things I want to do would take all day.
Evelyn: Sure.
Alessandra: The last question, which do you prefer: never have to go back to work, or never go back to sleep? But you will not feel tired or suffer negative health effects, and this question is also when you work.
Evelyn: Well, I would rather not work because I love to sleep.
Veronica: Yes!
Evelyn: Even if it does me good or it does me bad, I love to get into my bed, cover myself with my, my blanket and my pillows and I love to sleep. I love it, I love it.
Veronica: I agree, I agree. I like to work, I like my work but I have to sleep.
Alessandra: I think I would choose the other option, never go back to sleep. Because I am a night owl.
Veronica: You’re nocturnal.
Alessandra: Yes, I'm nocturnal, so no-- sometimes I think I don't have to sleep, but it's not true.
Veronica: You prefer not to sleep.
Alessandra: Yes.
Veronica: And I think also because you are younger.
Evelyn: Exactly.
Veronica: More, more plans, you have more projects, so you don't need--
Evelyn: Ambition, yes, I completely agree with what Mami says. Because you are very young, you have many ambitions, you want to do a lot, and you lack time to be able to do it, to do all that you want to do. Therefore you do not care much about sleep, but as you get older you like being able to sleep more and it is that for me sleeping is a pleasure. It is a pleasure to get into bed with my pillow and as I said before with my blanket and sleep. It's just that, it's a pleasure to sleep. So I would not sacrifice it, even if I have and want to do many things, I would not sacrifice for anything. When I was young, I didn't care about sleeping. Sleep didn't mean anything to me because I, for example, at a certain time in my life I loved to go out and have-- go to parties and things like that, and sleep didn't mean much.
Alessandra: I love to sleep too, but I don't know, I would choose the other option.
Evelyn: That it is not a bad option, that it is not a bad option. It's a good option.
Alessandra: But if I love my job, I would choose the other.
Evelyn: Okay then.
Alessandra: We have reached the end of the episode. Thank you very much for listening, and until next time!
Evelyn: Thank you Alessandra, thank you very much!
Veronica: Good luck with your retirement, Mommy.
Evelyn: Thank you, my daughter, thank you.
Veronica: We are very proud of you.
Evelyn: Thank you my heart, thank you.
Veronica: Okay, bye, thank you!
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