About Me 

What can I tell you about myself that will make you want to read what I write? Probably not much. And I am okay with that.

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I am not a celebrity or a researcher, and I don’t have a list of credentials that would fill a page. What I do have are a few decades of life, work, and experience, and more recently, the time and space to reflect on all of it.

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For most of my adult life, I lived in a world that kept score. Deadlines, travel schedules, meetings, numbers, and expectations shaped my days. Like many people, I built a career, raised a family, and spent years focused on what was next.

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Then one day, that structure went away. I retired at 57.

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What followed wasn’t just a change in schedule. It was a shift in identity. The routines that once defined my days were gone, replaced by something far less structured and far more personal. And with that came a new set of questions.

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Who am I without the work? What does a meaningful day look like now? What am I working toward if I am no longer working?

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I didn’t start with answers. Instead, I started writing.

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What began as a way to sort through my own thoughts turned into something more, first a blog, The Sunny Side of 57, and then a growing collection of reflections on retirement, family, identity, and transition.

Along the way, I realized I wasn’t alone in asking these questions.

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I am also the author of A New Game Without a Scoreboard, a book that grew out of these same thoughts and explores what it means to navigate retirement not as an ending, but as the beginning of a Second Act.

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These days, you are just as likely to find me walking along Skaneateles Lake with my wife, Sue, and our dog, Rigby, on a pickleball court, or sitting with a cup of coffee, trying to make sense of whatever thought decided to show up that morning.

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I don’t have everything figured out. But I’m paying attention.

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And writing about what I see.

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Anything else about me is just noise. But if you need more information or have any questions or suggestions, use the contact form on this site. It would be great to hear from you. Thanks.

 

Dan Troup