Retirement Looms Near!

Earlier in this blog I remarked that after 30.5 years teaching I was planning on retiring at the end of this school year. Though I've spent my whole working life in this profession I am still relatively young at 54.

The fact that I was retiring hit me viscerally today when I went to a 2 hour meeting at the county office to fill out forms for insurance and retirement checks and to direct how I wanted payment for my unused sick leave and retirement bonus to be invested. It was a surreal feeling to be part of a line of "old people" who were herded into a meeting room. The thought crossed my mind that this must be how old horses feel on the way to the glue factory. It got even stranger once I was inside. I was greeted by John H. and Danny D., the first two science teachers I met when I started work in St. Johns county 24 years ago! They are both retiring as well after long careers in science education. Somehow it felt right to be going out with the same guys I first worked with at Murray Middle school when I was a young buck with 6 years of experience who thought he knew everything about teaching. I was wrong. These teachers and many others taught me so much about teaching during the next 24 years. Now I know that excellent teachers always keep improving.

I don't know what will happen to this blog at the end of the year. I will probably close it out for any new posts and start a retirement blog. It seems silly to keep up a blog on teaching when you aren't in the business any more. You know, it gives me a creepy feeling to be at this point in my life. It feels like I am in the process of dying, releasing my attachments to my coworkers and students as I gradually slip away. I wonder what I will be in my next life? Someone interesting, I hope!