29 Down and 1 to Go

Gracious, but I don't know how in the world I find myself looking at the end of my 29th year of teaching. That sounds like an eternity, but, no, it's been a mere blink of an eye, in some respects.

Yesterday, we had our luncheon for the 3 staff members who are retiring this year. It was really nice, but it was bittersweet. While we are happy to see them eagerly anticipating retirement, many of us are sad to be seeing them go. I couldn't reconcile those ambiguous emotions. To think that I will be one of those going next year is rather unnerving. I am looking forward to it, and I don't want to be weepy and emotional. We were acting like these people were moving far, far away, when they are just going to to be 'absent' from school from now on.

Thinking about 30 years is surreal. I was a newlywed when I began my career. Now my children are 25, 23 and 15, and I have a daughter-in-law. We have owned 3 different houses and more cars than I can count. Dad died during those 30 years, along with both my grandpas. We've traveled to Florida, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, plus we've taken several trips abroad to Italy and the British Isles. When I was a journalism teacher, I took students on trips to Ball State, Chicago, Memphis, St. Louis and Cleveland.

Now those students are parents and I have had many children of students in recent years, which is another surreal phenomenon. I have taught in 4 different classrooms, and have survived a year of school construction. I've tried to tally up how many principals I've worked for, and superintendents, too, but I never get very far. I quit trying a long time ago to count all the English teachers who've been in our department since 1979. That is a very long list.

There has been a lot of satisfaction in teaching. I have said to students that I really don't think of my job as a job. I just get to go to school every day. I've been going to school for about 46 years, when I go back to include grades 1-12 and college. I really like school, and most of the time didn't have bad feelings about the work. The worst times were caused not by the job, but usually by just a handful of students who were just miserable to work with.

The biggest regret I have is that I worked when the kids were little. I wish I had considered that at the time, but it never occurred to me. Now, I can see what a disservice I did to them by hauling them off every day to a baby sitter's. The sitters were good, but not as good as a mom. If I'd taken that route, I wouldn't be thinking about retiring in a year. But in hindsight, that wouldn't have been such a bad trade off.

So, with mixed emotions, I end year number 29 in about 13 days, and begin year number 30. The year will go fast, as all of them seem to go, and I will have completely different emotions then than I do now. I just hope that there are more feelings of excitement than sadness.

I think there will be.