Rodney Rothman: I'm Rodney Rothman. I'm a writer. When I was 28 years old, I decided to retire early in Century Village, Florida. I was just curious what retirement in America was like.    Century Village is an enormous retirement community. It's spread out over thousands of acres. It's not a nursing home. It's the opposite. It's a summer camp basically.

Woman, white shirt/blue visor: This is the place to be if you're retired.

Woman, pink shirt/sunglasses: I love retirement, but more so, I love living here.

Rodney Rothman: People have this misconception really that when you retire, you kind of just sit in a chair and watch other people walk by, and it's very sedentary. I actually found it to be exhausting. I would usually try to meet up with the shuffleboard club at around 7:30 or 8. I would play shuffleboard every day, sometimes against my will.

Man, white shirt/white baseball hat: You're a loser!

Rodney Rothman: It was almost like they wanted to fill me with like, shuffleboard knowledge. Sometimes I played tennis. People here play tennis early in the morning before it gets too hot. In the afternoons, it becomes kind of social time. You just gossip and talk kind of like garbage with people.

Woman, green tank top: Are you single?

Rodney Rothman: There's a lot of cliques. People sit in these groups, and it's hard to break into the groups.

Woman, light pink shirt/white hat: Of course it has to be cliquey. You pick your own friends.

Woman, pink shirt/sunglasses: It's the people that play cards that are more or less cliquey.

Rodney Rothman: It reminded me of high school except that it seems like this place lasts like, twenty years instead of four.

Woman, green tank top: Go to the pool; you'll find out who's sleepin' with who and who's makin' out with who.

Rodney Rothman: There's a lot of single people here. There's a lot of dating. Half of the women in a community like this are widows.

Man, purple shirt: Two widows or three widows to a man. I got it made in the shade!

Rodney Rothman: If you can operate an automobile, you can date all the time. You can have five girlfriends at once.

Woman, purple shirt/eye glasses: Most women here are lookin' for a man that drives at night.

Man, tan and white shirt/tan baseball hat: I don't drive anymore.

Woman, green tank top: I don't need a man. I drive at night.

Man, tan and white shirt/tan baseball hat: They have a wonderful bus system.

Rodney Rothman: It was just really fun here. It was really social. I would walk out of the building, and I would see 50 people that I knew. I had time to actually have conversations with people. You never have time to do that in your real life.

Man, purple shirt: I like that beard. It's a beauty!

Rodney Rothman: Thank you very much.

Man, purple shirt: How do you trim it?

Rodney Rothman: Actually, I find myself missing just how social it is here and hoping that when I retire, that I'll be able to rebuild some version of this. I definitely encountered a wisdom, but I also encountered a lot of people who were still figuring stuff out for themselves. Like, I remember this guy, he was in his 70s. We used to hang out and play golf, and I remember once we were sitting there, and he just said to me, "You know, I haven't quite figured out my thing in life yet." That was sort of a relief, you know, to know that you don't have to have everything figured out.

Woman, pink shirt/sunglasses: He did it!

Rodney Rothman: Nicely done. I actually think that the generation that's here now got things right.

Woman, pink shirt/sunglasses: You could be my partner anytime.

Rodney Rothman: Really?

Woman, pink shirt/sunglasses: Even in a tournament!