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Archive for June 9th, 2020

Last Thoughts on Retiring

Posted in General on June 9, 2020| 3 Comments »

Yes, really! I won’t keep boring you with this transition. But I didn’t say that this is the last words on being retired, because I know nothing of that, yet.

Upon request by my Principal to know if any teachers are coming into work next week, I replied:

“I need to clean out my classroom next week. I cannot be there on Thursday, because part of the day I will be at the doctor’s office with my wife.

I have years of accumulated “stuff” to redistribute, describe the whereabouts to others, consolidate, recycle, and file is #13. It will be a walk down memory lane and a very cathartic exercise.

I feel very much like I did during several years when I was freshly married and underemployed. I was expectant and prayerful about God’s leading and honestly intermittently scared half out of my wits.

I have plans and desires, none of which have come about at the moment, but my biggest hope is that my latter years will be more for God’s glory than my former.”

Retiring is not so much the end of something old as it is the beginning of something new. It will be appropriate to reminisce and tell old stories, but I must resist getting into the default mode of always falling back on an “I remember when” story. People tire of them quickly. Instead, my backward looking should be to inspire and caution myself and others for the forward going. How can I move forward? How can I think differently? How can I utilize what I’ve learned to be creative in what I don’t yet know? Business and education language frequently talks about flexibility and change. Yes, they are inevitable, but they are code words for embrace stress. Why not rather deal with the change that life brings rather than make it your bread and drink, your breathe and thought? I want to keep working and I must keep working, but I want to go at a pace and with a demeanor that is free of stress. For me, that is more than a lack of financial stress, it is a way of thinking about my expectations of myself.

My last day, I had an “exit interview” scheduled with my Principal. I had a suspicion that it was a party, but I was very surprised with the scope and style of the “party”. Colleagues waited in line for quite sometime as a fellow retiree and I greeted each and every person who drove by. As odd as it might seem, it was more intimate than a “regular” party, because I was able to speak to each individual separately, hugging some* and praying with a few. Our district has a long standing tradition of giving retirees a rocking chair at their retirement party. I like rocking chairs (“Rocking Chair”), so it is already placed prominently in my house for use. I am thankful that a colleague took a few pictures with her cellphone for a record of this drive through party.

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