One thing you should be paying attention to when you are choosing a retirement community is the weekly activities. Are there any that interest you or make you happy? I am still pretty active in my life away from my retirement community, but there will come a time when I will no longer be able to drive and the freedom that entails. When that happens, you need things that make you want to wake up each morning, things that bring joy to your life..

My retirement community has at least three or four activity choices every day. After five months here, I am now ready to socialize with my fellow residents through some of those activities. The first activity that caught my attention was the Writer’s Group. Since I am a blogger who writes seven posts a week, that seems like a natural. I will join that group soon and let you know how it works out for me.

For those gamers among us there is the mandatory weekly Bingo, Euchre and board games. And of course Saturday Night at the Movies. I have been assured that almost all the movies are captioned so that is another possibility for me.

Being that I am socially challenged due to my Aspie traits, deafness, and a decade of social isolation, I need to get back in the game. That will be a trying time for me, but as they say, practice makes perfect. There are numerous “social hours” here that I need to start getting involved in when I am ready.

If something is lacking from the activity list, you might choose, then consider starting something up yourself. I am doing just that with weekly sessions about coping with hearing loss and learning some sign language. Leading that workshop should be some interesting and challenging times for me, and hopefully will be of value to my fellow residents. Being the dreamer that I am, I am hoping that this activity eventually becomes a core support group for present and future residents with hearing loss. Some place where they can go to get the help they need to have an active social life.

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It might not come to mind that weekly activities will become a critical part of your life as a retirement community resident, but do pay particular attention to this topic during your initial visits. If they don’t provide you with interesting things to do with your time, then you might want to look elsewhere.