Just imagine yourself a few years from now. Now add a few more years, and a few more, come on, a couple more years, right around the time when you are 65. Stay with that image for a moment. Do you want to be retired? Do you want to feel retired? What feelings do the thoughts about your retirement（退休） provoke（激怒） in you?
Most of us do not think much about our retirement. One reason is because we associate（交往） retirement（退休） with getting old. Ageism is so prevalent（普遍的） in our society, to the point we don't even realize. Think about birthday cakes. What do we celebrate when we sing "Happy Birthday" to you? And you see all those candles（蜡烛） that barely（几乎不） fit on the cake, or worse off, a number displayed（陈列） on it, and you think, "I am now 62."
Some studies show that ageism is even prevalent in children. I can personally testify（证明） to that when once my five-year-old daughter offered my 60-year-old neighbor to take a photo of him, in case he dies. We also don't think much about retirement because, psychologically（心理（学）地）, it is difficult for us to imagine our future selves（自己）. So if we do not imagine ourselves, we cannot sympathize（同情） with ourselves, and if we do not sympathize with ourselves, we are not very good at planning our future retirement. Neither our finances（财政） nor how would we want to spend our time once retired. Lastly（最后）, we do not think much about retirement（退休） because, in our mind, retirement represents the dawn（黎明） of our lives.
That one day, I leave work, and all my productive（能生产的） years I left behind. All my fun times with colleagues I left behind. Most of my ideas and aspirations（渴望） are all left behind. In fact, past that one day, we have more to look back to than to look forward to, don't we? Why so? Why is it that yesterday I worked and led a productive life, and today I am retired and with all those things that are left behind, I am now just supposed to rest?
You see, contrary（相反的） to the advancements（进步） in other spheres（范围） of our lives, the concept（概念） of retirement（退休） has seen little evolution（演变） since late 19th, early 20th century. Back then, the idea behind retirement was that, by the age of about 60, an average person started to show signs of aging, frailty, inefficiency at work, so it made economical（经济的） sense to let them work no more. Indeed, when globally（世界上） life expectancy barely（几乎不） reached 50 years old by mid-1950s, someone living to 60 years old was considered rather old, so it only makes sense to let them respectfully spend the last few years in a well-deserved（应受） rest. Even the word itself "retirement" comes from 16th century French word "retirée," which means to withdraw（收回） from occupation（占领）, business, society. In today's day at time, this sounds rather sombre（阴沉的）, don't you think? Today, an average retirement lasts 22 years.
And in some countries, that number approaches（向…靠近） 30. Yes, that is between a third and a half of our lifetime（一生）. I can bet（打赌） you did not imagine yourself withdrawing（收回） and feeling old for 22 years when a few minutes ago I've asked you to imagine your future self（自己）.