It was wonderful to get the chance to head back to school yesterday and get my classroom ready. It was a mess when I walked in, filled with all of the boxes and things here from home that I had just dropped off a couple of weeks back. Yesterday provided the chance to get a start on unpacking and arranging things in some kind of semblance of order. When I left about 3:30 in the afternoon, I had begun 9 different projects and completed only one. Not sure what that says about me but I do hope that I remember to have empathy for my first grade students when they too have a similar problem.
You know, I never even thought about having a 37th year in education, or for that matter a 33rd-36th one either. When I said that I was done and ready to call it "good" after 32 years back in 2010, I really thought I was ready to retire. It seemed like the right thing to do and the perfect time in my life to try something different. Something new. It didn't take long at all to come to the realization that ~
"Hey, are you crazy? There's still a lot of teacher left in you! What were you thinking girl?"
Fortunately for me, I was able to return to the classroom in October of 2010 at a great school back in Hutchinson, Kansas called Lincoln Elementary. It was there that I remained for the next 3 years in a Title I Reading/Math position until Mike and I were married on the last school day of the year. Last August, just about this time, I found a wonderful school just up the road a ways from here in Montrose that was looking for a teacher for one of their fourth-grade classrooms. I joined the good folks at Olathe Elementary and remain there this year as a first-grade teacher. For this opportunity to not be retired, I give thanks always.
Come late October this year, I will soon find the age of 59. Many of my friends, especially back home in Kansas, have asked me how many more years I will teach. When will I really retire? My answer is pretty much always the same. As long as I am needed and can be an effective teacher, then I'd like to choose to keep going. It's surely a good feeling to wake up on a school day morning and realize that my job is something that I love to do. Oh sure, there are challenges but what occupation doesn't have them? For me, now nearly 4 decades into it, the challenges are so tremendously outweighed by the benefits. Not sure I could ask for anything more.
Today somewhere out there, teachers are getting ready for the school year to begin. They are in their classrooms, on their own time, because they know the days will quickly pass by before that first school bell of the year shall ring. Chances are better than not that they have spent money of their own to get the supplies needed to do their jobs. They will come early and they will stay late. Many will bring their own children in tow to spend the day alongside their parents who are educators. Plenty of sacrifices are made but they are ones chosen freely. Day in and day out it happens and it happens for one reason only~
The reason is this. They love the children that they teach. Plain and simple. Do me a favor today, will you? Find a teacher and give them a hug and while you are at it, tell them "thank you" for what they are about to be ready to do.
Last summer when I visited the Montrose Public Library~
I love the statue called "The Teacher". I'm glad I listened to God's calling for me. I cannot even begin to imagine doing anything else in this life. It is what I was born to be. My destiny.
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