Retirement comes in different shapes and sizes. Depending on health, finances, and disposition, it can be the very first time you’ve had genuine control over your time without kids to raise or a career to tend. It was for me. So, what do you do with it? For all my life, I’ve heard about the Bucket List, that golden roster of experiences, travels, or purchases that you’ve waited ALL THIS TIME to indulge in. Movies are made about it. Books are written. Stories are told. It can be as simple as growing a garden, as enriching as learning a new language, or as elaborate as taking a long, exotic cruise.
So, imagine my surprise when so much of my post-work enjoyment sprang not from new and ambitious adventures (though those can be spectacular) but from the things that I DON’T DO ANYMORE! Move over, Bucket List. I’ve got a Chuck It List these days.
Among my Chuck It joys is ignoring the clock. For years in TV news and programming, everything was tightly timed. Five minutes to air! Fifteen seconds to commercial break! Wrap this interview in 15 seconds! Now, my life rarely runs by the second or even the minute, and I’m better for it. It made me wonder what some of my colleagues, also retired from Seattle area television news, had to say on the subject.
The first person I reached out to was Dennis Bounds, decades-long and award-winning anchor of KING-TV, Mariners fan, and my BBQ lunch buddy. He’s also one of the world’s most solid, dependable, and principled men. Despite traveling halfway around the world with his wife Debbie, he replied to my email quickly, showing that his newsman instincts haven’t left him. He’s never far out of touch. He hasn’t left broadcasting completely behind. His vlog, Blakes and Bounds From Studio G, with Mike Blakey, another KING-TV colleague, can be viewed on YouTube. Even so, he has a Chuck It List too. First on it, he says, “I have no dang deadlines to meet anymore. I can now be anywhere at 5, 6:30 and 11. And most days at 11, I’m asleep.” Me too, Denny. Me too.
Lori Matsukawa spent more than 40 years as a journalist, 36 of those at KING-TV, breaking ground, mentoring others, and earning respect across the industry. Beyond Emmys and other accolades, she also won the ‘Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays,’ award, one of Japan’s highest honors for promoting Japan-U.S. friendship. She’s as gracious a person as you will ever meet. Since retirement, she’s written a children’s book, Brave Mrs. Sato. Now, there’s at least one part of the rat race she most certainly does not miss. “Oh, that commute to the station every afternoon, especially during events at T-Mobile Park!” Likewise, she’s fulfilled by letting go of the job’s “restrictions on free expression. For the first time in my working life, I’ve attended political rallies and door-knocked for candidates.”
Enrique Cerna hung up his tv news spurs in 2018, after winning ten Emmys, serving as a WSU Edward R. Murrow College of Communications Regent, and signing off as the Senior Correspondent at KCTS Seattle Public Television. He’s now hosting the Chino Y Chicano and UNFILTERED podcasts, taking deep, thoughtful dives into the issues and culture dominating our lives today. Like Lori, he appreciates exploring new terrain and drawing meaningfully from his own life experiences. That doesn’t mean he isn’t into the lighter side of the Chuck It List. “When I retired, I said no more ties! I haven’t tossed all of them, but I’m working on it. Shaving is overrated. I try to avoid that now. And it’s a loud ‘hell, no’ to tight-fitting dress clothes.” He says, “I tossed my television makeup kit,” playfully adding, “Brown don’t break down.” Like me, Enrique says he works hard at not feeling guilty when he spends time doing nothing, watching movies or sports. But trust me, doing “nothing” is often just exactly the right “something.” I wish I’d known that earlier.
When you’re young, adults tell you “It all goes by so fast” and “time flies,” but honestly you can’t take in the exquisite value of these later years without living long enough to reach them. And as much as I wish you get to do everything on your Bucket List, I hope your Chuck It List brings you even more joy.
Margaret Larson retired as host of KING 5‘s “New Day Northwest.” Her impressive 35-year career included stints as a London-based foreign correspondent for NBC News and as a news anchor for the Today Show, as well as a reporter for Dateline NBC and anchor at KING 5.
Connect with Margaret Larson at:
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