And Then It Hit Me!

I have retired from teaching.  

Ok...I know this happened on August 19, 2016.  Last year.  

But I started the semester with the non-instructional week like everyone else did.  THEN my last day came---and went.  

Hilary, Greta, and I went to the Belong! conference in Columbus, Ohio, immediately after I walked out of Ivy Tech for the last time as an employee.

Gary and I went to Memphis in September -and there were NO KIDS anywhere.  School was in session.

Harvest time - I rode in the combine.  I helped in the field.  

No time off needed to help care for Agnes---or asking for days off for the services.

Thanksgiving and Christmas?  Smooth.  Lots of homemade projects and gifts.

Relaxed time at Gatlinburg - except for the bug bites.

No fear of snow days and slick roads.

Many trips to Ohio while Mom was ill and in the nursing home.

A cruise in March.

A trip to Charleston and MB in early May.

Many trips to Wooster to clean out the house made easier with no summer classes to teach.

School calendars are not a part of my life anymore and I don't keep up on when classes are going on and when they are not.

So why did it hit me now?

Back to School shopping.

Of course it is still July, temps in the 90s, and humidity high, but school will be starting in early August.  I guess.  I don't really know for sure of exact start dates.  Why?  Because I don't have to be there.

But I do like Back to School shopping.  And until a few years ago, I still took the M and H shopping a week or so before school started so we could have lunch and I could buy them each a new outfit.

Back to School shopping.  The newness of pencils and pens, folders and binders, new bookbags.  New clothes.  New shoes.  A trip to the dentist, the doctor maybe, the hair stylist for a 'before school starts' haircut, the optometrist for new glasses.

The expectations of a new year.  New teacher(s).  New classroom (s).  New classmates.  New things to learn.  Each year a little more advanced than the year before.  

Fresh starts.  Clean slate for perfect attendance.  Clean slate for Honor Roll.  

New objectives and teaching techniques.  New lesson plans.  New philosophies.  New methods.

But not for me.  None of it is for me.

It hit me.  I am done.  I am not part of it anymore.

But yes, you say.  You haven't been part of a classroom for an entire year!  The schedule has started and ended without you for a fall and a spring and a summer semester.  This is not a new thing.

This year seems different.  With the amount of time spent in Wooster and the focus in my mind on cleaning out the house, I feel like I lost out on summer with the kids.

What happened to putting up the pop-up and camping with Landon?  When did the tea party trip go with Tessa?  I guess we exchanged the trips to the ice cream place in Lafayette with trips to Hartzlers (better ice cream anyway!) and instead of camping we had overnights at our 'summer home' in Wooster.  We did go to Columbian Park for a picnic and playground. Landon spent a day at the Pulaski County Fair with us.  Cooper was with us for an entire week at the end of June.

As I lamented about the loss of summer on the drive home from Lafayette today, I remembered that these 'start dates' and 'Back to School' shopping trips really don't affect me.  For the first time in many years I can enjoy summer as it is supposed to be ---until Labor Day.  August will be still be summer for us.

Also "Back to School" shopping is expensive and nerve racking at times.  Finding just the right item in the store to match the required item on the list?  Sometimes impossible.

Strike the 'expensive.'  Every penny we spent was worth it for the girls to be able to have the materials needed to enhance their learning. And I know that teachers spend so much of their own money on supplies also.

It did hit me today.  I have retired.  I am not going to school anymore.  No more classes or meetings or planning or grading for Mrs. Siemens. I pitched the last of the ENGL 222 and ENGL 223 materials yesterday.

Now I can really be retired and enjoy spending time doing what I  want to do. 

Yay!!!