Use it or lose it, YODA
Her Perspective By Liz Biggs
“Retirement Plan” is a 2026 award-winning animated short film exploring the existential, often humorous, realities of post-work life. The film focuses on a man contemplating his future, routine and fear of being forgotten. In this poignant film, Ray commits to doing all the things he has put off — learn the names of trees, clean off his desk, organize his digital photos, get better at saying no, finish all the books he has started, swim every morning, travel to all his bucket list destinations, delete all those emails, sew on that button … but alas, he runs out of time. (Spoiler alert — he dies.) The moral of the story is that by the time you retire, you may be too old and tired to do all the things you hoped you would.
I’m not quite retired yet — I’m still typing these words on a blank page so that counts as working. But I find Ray’s story relatable. There are so many things I still want to do — spend time with my kids, see my bucket list bands, hang out with my friends, dance more, work on my fitness, go to those far-off places, use more clichés in this column — well, there’s no time like the present!
Last week, I tackled an exercise class at the YMCA called “Use it or Lose it,” taught by my friend and fellow Bella writer, Sharla Gorder. Quite challenging, it’s a class that focuses on increasing muscular strength, endurance, balance and flexibility. Sharla is fit as a fiddle and inspires me to work harder. I hope she doesn’t mind me stealing the name of her class for my column title. I know I need to amp up my fitness level if I want to achieve all my dreamy goals when I’m old and retired.
A few weeks ago, I invited a bunch of fun friends over and we ended up dancing in the dining room to “Delete Ya” by Djo. I have a celebrity crush on Djo, aka Joe Keery, who played Steve Harrington in the sci-fi series “Stranger Things.” He also played John Hamm’s son, the bumbling henchman Gator Tillman, on the crime drama series “Fargo” (season 5). I’m a big “Fargo” fan and I love an inept, bumbling henchman. When I found out Djo was opening for one of my favorite Australian psychedelic rock bands, Tame Impala, I booked a trip to Atlanta with my three sons to see them in July. The concert sold out quickly but luckily, they added a second show and my son was already in the online ticket queue so we scored four. Don’t worry, my husband is not sad to be left out. He immediately planned a fishing trip with his buddies. Then he asked me — who the heck is Djo?
My sister gifted me with one of those DNA tests that discloses your heritage. I always thought I was Irish because my maiden name was O’Giblin before the ‘O’ was dropped a few generations ago. My grandfather’s family was from Dublin. But my grandmother’s family was from Sweden and guess what? I’m 68% Scandinavian and only 6% Irish. So, of course, I booked a trip to Sweden, Norway and Denmark to meet all my 4th cousins. Every week I get an email from myheritage.com with a 4th or 5th cousin DNA match. They have fantastic names like Lars, Bjorn, Gunnar, Leif, Elsa, Astrid, Ebba and Alice, which was my grandmother’s name. No, I don’t plan to meet any of them, but it did inspire me to book the trip. We’re going to visit Poland, Estonia and Berlin, Germany while we’re over there.
I don’t want to be like Ray.
You know that famous acronym, YOLO — you only live once? That’s such a tired cliché. For me it’s more like YOOO — you’re only old once. Or YODO — you only die once. No, that’s too morbid. How about YODA? As in get off yo’ old dayum a$$ and do something fun, quick — before you get too old and tired. We only have a limited amount of QTR — quality time remaining. Use it or lose it!
