Early Retirement.  It is hard to believe that this will be the last week of my General Motors life in Detroit.  I leave Michigan on Friday, June 30.  I am not sure when I will be back.

Almost unbelievable.

Twelve years ago in March 2005, I developed a personal career vision timeline.  Life took some unexpected turns soon after 2005 so I did not achieve many of the goals that I planned that year, but I will actually achieve the last goal on my 2005 list of goals -- to retire from GM in 2017.  My vision for when I would retire actually came true.  But those 12 years went by fast and only until recently did I realize I could indeed comfortably retire in 2017.  The time I joined General Motors 32 years ago almost seems like yesterday.  So many good times over those 32 years.  I have many fond memories that I will think about during post-retirement.

When most people retire, they mention they will not miss the job, but they will miss the people.  I will actually miss both, but definitely the daily interaction with my GM colleagues will be missed most.  The people I work with now and in the past are truly good people, here in GM Order Fulfillment and back with my times in GM Export, Saturn, and GM Corporate Marketing – in Michigan, Canada and Israel.   And not only are they genuinely good people, but they are clever and humorous too.  Their sense of wit every day over the past 32 years has caused me to smile and laugh so many times in all sorts of situations – whether it was during meetings, or as I worked with someone on the pressing issue for the moment, or in passing while getting a cup of coffee, or at the lunch table.  The GM people I interacted with each day helped make my job a joy to work.  And I am pretty sure that this lack of daily witty interaction is what I will first notice that I miss during my early months of retirement.

There is a long list of people that helped make my days more enjoyable.  But there are certainly some people that made a big impact on my GM career, including Bruce Thom, Maury Dietrich, Tom Olmsted, Deb Black, Jim Steinhagen, Jim Grosh and Jeff McGrath.  And many others I worked closely with over the years that often lifted my spirits, including Tom Lerner-Sharabi, Jason Tung, John Hanson, Ed Roell, Dennis Bartell, Mark Dziewit, Doug Bauss, Heidi Crist, and so many others too numerous to mention them all.  I am grateful to all of them for the contributions they made to my work life, including my colleagues now in GM Order Fulfillment.

I love seeing the spirit and energy of so many new people now joining GM.  I think GM has a bright future and it will be up to them to carry forward GM into an auto environment that is just beginning to undergo massive changes.  During this hectic environment, I encourage them to be sure to take the time to get to know many of the people they are working with on a daily basis.  They are likely to help make your time at GM more fun and rewarding.  And do not hesitate to help co-workers out with the tasks they are trying to complete.  GM is a big company, but over the years I have been surprised how small it seems to me, running into GM people I have worked with in the past to work with them again in some capacity.

I truly look forward to my new life post GM retirement.  I expect it to be a glorious time.  I plan to initially take some time off to spend lots of time with my family.  But I do not consider myself “old” yet, so I expect to still make further contributions to this world – just not sure yet how I will do that.

Every time I think about the end of my career at GM, I actually get quite sad and so I stop thinking about it and focus on what else I can do before I leave.  At some point though I will have to come to the full realization that times with my GM “family” is over and I will not be working with these awesome people ever again.  But I am not going to think about it too much yet.  Even though next week is my last week with GM in Michigan, I will spend the month of July on vacation, but still checking my GM emails and talking to fellow team members over the phone, until my retirement officially begins on August 1.

So it will probably not be until sometime in August before it will really hit me that it is all over for me at GM.  When it does, I hope they know I will be thinking about them with misty eyes and wishing them all the best.