Friday, August 13, 2010

Official Retirement

School in the county has officially started and school in the city starts Monday. Up until now, I have been on "summer break." Now retirement is official. How do I feel about that? Great! Wonderful! A deep feeling of relief has come over me. I will miss the people I taught with, and there are some students that I will miss, but most of them passed to High School so I wouldn't be seeing them anyway. I don't miss the "having to get up and get going" in the mornings. Just taking my own sweet time getting up and having my morning coffee sitting at my table, instead of gulping it from the nearest drive-thru on my way to school. The thing I will miss is the time after first bell until the kids got into first period class. That was a time I always had "hall duty" and watch the students arrive. There was always a "hi" or "mornin'" or even a smile from some of my students, and even some that weren't mine. Some were eager to share what they did last night. Maybe it was winning the football game, or even that they got to visit their grandma. Sometimes, I heard things in the hallway that I really didn't want or need to know. I was amazed at how glad some were to see each other every morning, even though they had walked home together, and probably texted each other all evening long. It was fun to watch the sleepy ones, too. The bed-hair, the wrinkled clothes, the weird outfits. Ah, yes. Those things I will miss. But, I decided that if I miss it too much, I can get up a little earlier and just sit and watch the kids walking to school. With my coffee, in my recliner. Ahhhhhhhhhhh! Retirement!
Peace,
JE

1 comment:

Curley said...

And nothing says that you couldn't go to the school for a "visit". Glad that you are enjoying the "quiet" time. No more mad rush, unless you are going to breakfast with someone on the way to Hobby Lobby.