Still adding justification, for some reason

Just back from being the plus-1 for my wife, who was attending a work conference at a hotel in southwest Florida.

I met and interacted with many of her colleagues, or their plus-1’s, some of whom, after conversing for a while, would invariably ask, “what line of work are you in?”

I can honestly say it was the first time I felt completely comfortable in saying, “I’m a Physician, but I also just recently retired.”

However, even though, without fail, all would say,”Congratulations!,” I still felt as if I needed to add additional caveats such as:

“Yep, after a 40-year medical career.”

“I couldn’t believe how many of my classmates had also already retired when I saw them at my 40-year medical school reunion in April.”

“But I’m board-certified until 2029, so we’ll see…”

Et cetera.

But, I’ve made steady progress when answering the question, so I don’t anticipate it will be too much longer until just say “thank you” after being congratulated.