Catching up with Carrie Klewin Lawrence
Retirement: The Final Balancing Act
Hello MilspoFan Community!
Long time no update.
Where have I been?
In the process of retirement.
Ya’ll….
Where do I begin?
The last time I wrote up an update was July of 2020. How many lifetimes can happen in three short-long-never-ending-where-did-they-go years?
Here’s the very short story. We moved back to the US in September of 2020. My USMC husband took a post at Fort Meade in Maryland to work in cyber while we sorted out retirement plans. Less than a year later we were on our way to Los Angeles with a goal of settling in the Southern California region.
“How’s that going for you”, you ask? It’s not. Now we’re in Monterey, CA. Three moves in three years. And here I thought all of this moving around was over. I also mistakenly thought that retirement meant that I could get back to, a more full-time focus on my career. Oh boy universe… or Murphy, or whoever you are… the joke is 100% on me.
I can share all of this now with some light at the end of the tunnel. My husband has settled on his new career – after many rounds of interviews, and hundreds of hours chatting with mentors, coaches, and friends. I’ll have to give you an update in a future post because it’s still being sorted out as we speak. My best advice? Start the process as early as possible. I mean the transitional programs, the asking around, the informational meetings. It’s a wild world out there that loves to praise the prowess of military experience but can’t translate it to civilian business. It’s never too soon to start thinking about retirement.
The most ironic part of this story is how a year ago I decided to put a lifelong desire of writing a legitimate book into action. Origin Story (Power of the Inciting Incident) just went live on Amazon yesterday. In fact, I interviewed a couple of amazing spouses from this community for the book! https://a.co/d/9xmK5Bp
Origin Story is a culmination of my experience as a military spouse, diplomat, artist, creative, entrepreneur, and mother. It’s a celebration of my journey to this very spot, looking out of my window at the Monterey Bay. It’s an investigation of how I came to be a theatre professor at Dog Tag Bakery in Georgetown – a Bakery started by a Jesuit Priest as a small business model for the fellowship offered to military veterans, caretakers and spouses on their way toward entrepreneurial endeavors.
And it’s a celebration of spouses like you. Spouses who have been detoured, made their country, their spouse, their family, and pretty much everything except for themselves a priority at some point. It’s an opportunity for reconnection and recharge.
When we returned back to the US, I felt pretty lost. Like a proverbial fish out of water. I missed Spain with an ache of home I hadn’t felt since leaving home for college. But it was a mirage. It was no more my home than any of the dozens of families that had worked for the embassy and taken refuge there for decades. I don’t know if it was the pandemic that bonded me so severely, but the reverse culture shock sent me into a type of depression I had never experienced.
While we considered every possibility of staying in Spain long-term, the truth is that my children were not really American at that point. Even today my oldest has spent more than half of her life growing up outside of the US. I didn’t want them to feel like strangers to their own country. Perhaps I overcorrected by making them eat school lunches for a year, but hey, they were free, so…
The past few years have been an exercise in balance. So many questions I thought we would have answers to, but are still hanging in the air – where will we land, what careers will hold our attention? Will we buy the farm and start the experimental artistic retreat center?
Right now, it’s a daily experiment. How to get the kids through a hybrid homeschool program while writing a book and working from home, and why not throw competitive gymnastics into the mix?
Every decision seems simple on paper, right?
And then I remember.
It’s my turn. We agreed that it would be my turn.
It’s not like I haven’t been working. I have actually managed a project here and there.
I directed Ada and the Engine by Lauren Gunderson for The Catholic University of America. That one was wild. We decided – well, I decided, but lucky for me everyone went along with it – to send all of the actors green screens so they could record themselves at home. Then we edited the scenes together so that it looked like they were in the same room together. Totally experimental, and for the most part highly effective. It was a thrilling and magical experience. The best kind of creativity meets technology.
If you want to read more about my virtual experiments you can read “Devised Experiments in Breaking Zoom” on HowlRound, and article I wrote with a theatre colleague from the UK (we met at a virtual happy hour during the pandemic). https://howlround.com/devised-experiments-breaking-zoom
I directed a show of The Moors by Jen Silverman at York College of Pennsylvania in a hybrid-style of auditioning and rehearsing for four weeks from a distance, and going to PA for the final two weeks for staging and tech. It was an emotional experience as we navigated COVID policies, continuing to use masks while trying to stay as technically truthful to the process. It got really tricky when hair and makeup were added. I have such great respect for the student actors who learned so many new skills along the way, and a type of resilience and ability for creative problem-solving on a whole new level.
Adventures of the Red Wolves, an interactive theatre production devised on Zoom I created with an ensemble, “toured” to several festivals, including a night in London and the Education Days conference in Germany.
I have also managed to keep consulting and coaching public speaking and personal branding clients from Madrid, and all over the US. Origin Story is the next step in focusing more on supporting others (like military spouses) in their non-traditional journeys as creatives.
The truth is that the military continues to be a very large force in our lives. From the benefits we receive and the access to base resources (and my awesome Yoga teacher), to all of the buddies my husband has consulted in search of his new job… and the thousands of friends we have made along the way…
When people tell me and my family, “Thank you for your service”, they really have absolutely no idea how much our lives have been enriched, all of the gifts, and skills, and opportunities we have been granted because of the wild journey we embarked upon almost 25 years ago.
I feel lucky and grateful, and immensely appreciative of the life we have lived while serving. I am so excited to continue to be a part of this community and to have an opportunity to work with military spouses.
Stay tuned for more updates – because like I said…
Now it’s my turn!