Last Full Day
Tuesday. It’s the last full day of school for the year. Whew! It’s been a long and arduous one for me. I’ll be happy for the summer break to finally arrive on Friday so that I can kick back a bit and start tackling the house chores that I’ve neglected for the past ten months. I can read and begin to whittle down that mountain of books in my to-be-read pile. I can write more and make jewelry more. My to-do list is about a mile long, as usual. I just know from the get go that I will only finish about a third of the items on the list before September rolls around and it time to go back to school.
Wait. Stop. Think. In September I’m not going back to school. My career as a teacher will be over. I have retired and today is my last full day of school for EVER! In fact, today will be my last full day to teach classes of Lindenwold children how to use the computer, or anything for that matter. It’s my last full day EVER. No going back. No changing my mind. It’s a done deal.
At the BOE meeting last night the superintendent handed out framed proclamations and pewter plates to all of the district’s retirees. She introduced me and said that I had worked in the district for 34 years (it was really 35) and that I had pioneered some of the technology that a student had just presented. I thought it made me sound old. I’m not old. (I’m younger than her). I smiled and shook her hand. My goals were to keep my head from tremoring while I was up there and not to have her hug me.
Am I ready to move on with my life? Am I ready to take the time to sit back and work on my to-do list until it’s done?
If I keep adding things to my to-do list at the rate I have been, it will never be done.
That’s a good thing. I think.