Joyful Christmas

So, I went back to work this past Monday for the beginning of my final year of teaching; my”victory lap.” I am beginning this year with mixed emotions. Part of me is very happy that I will begin a new adventure in my life this coming May as I retire after 17 years in the field of education, and part of me is sad because there is much that I will miss. I will miss the camaraderie among the people I work with who have become some of my dearest friends. I will miss bonding with the students I encounter every year. But there are many things for which I am excited to say farewell. One is lesson planning on Sundays and catching up on grading papers. Another is the endless in services that I will no longer have to sit through. One more is the disgruntled parents I occasionally encounter because they think I should hand their child whatever it is they want without their child earning it. Also, I will not miss the outside duties on cold winter days or the drives to work when the roads are icy and humans shouldn’t be out on them. I will not miss benchmark or state testing and worrying if my kids will show adequate growth. I will not miss indefinite pay freezes because funding for education is low. I will not miss grading essays, and finally, I will not miss my 4:45 a.m. daily wake up call so I can get ready and be at work on time. So you might ask, “Why did I hang around so long?” Well, it was because of the kids, of course! Through the course of the year, my students become “my kids.” I grow to love them as if they were my very own. Of course, there are days when I might wish one or two were absent…but being a teacher is just like being a mom. There were one or two when I wished my OWN children weren’t around. But in the long run, I could never imagine what my life would have been like if I had not had my own kids. The same holds true with being a teacher! What would my life have been like had I not had the hundreds of students I’ve had over the past 17 years? They’ve kept me young at heart and they have filled my life with such joy and love. Even though there are so many things I WILL NOT MISS, it will be hard to say good-bye.

I did manage to get in a little stamping done this week, which is ALWAYS a good thing. This is my first Christmas card of the year…never too early to get started on that.