Retirement at last (or too soon?)

My first official day of retirement was June 15, 2012.

I spent one year in kindergarten, eight years in elementary school, four years in high school, four years to get my BA/teaching credential and twenty years later I got my MA. I taught junior high/middle school (Industrial Arts, History, English, Computers, Yearbook) for forty years.

Retirement

My 40th year in junior high
My 40th year in junior high

My life no longer answers to bells (except for my wife’s alarm clock). No more thirty minute lunches; no more ten minute bathroom breaks. No more “potty duty”. Heaven. Brooks and Red, in the Shawshank Redemption, had difficulty adjusting to their newfound freedom when they were paroled; I have had no difficulty adjusting to mine.

For the first time in fifty plus years my life is no longer governed by the schedule set by Education.

I get to have coffee, take a walk along the beach, have some more coffee and breakfast, read the papers and do my crossword and Sudoku puzzles. Heaven.

Friends ask how I like retirement. I tell them that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be – it’s a lot better.

My wife still teaches and I still work high school games during football season (public address announcer), but there is no longer any pressure or tension. No testing, no discipline, no homework, no parents, no administrators (or lesson plans and color-coded seating charts). Ahhh.

When I retired, I told my wife that I wasn’t going to do anything for a year (this blog is as close to work as I get) and then decide whether I wanted to get another job. Maybe, substitute teaching. I don’t think so. This freedom is enjoyable and addictive; there is no dearth of activities; there is no boredom; there is no yearning for something meaningful to do. I like this.

Or, maybe, I do have a “job” – causing jealousy and envy in others.

11.10.2012