~and I can't wait to find out what it is~

My 61st birthday will be arriving towards the end of next month and I am baffled beyond measure to figure out where the last 6 decades have disappeared to.  Once I was eight years old and having the time of my life on the playground with my friends as we chased the cute boys at recess time and then before I knew it, I was 24 and the mother of a brand new little baby boy. There was a time that I celebrated ten years in the classroom as an educator and then I made the mistake of blinking.  Before I knew it, I had completed nearly 4 decades of service to the field of education.

Time flew while I was living my life.

I must admit that I wonder what will happen to me in the years that lie ahead.  I'm more towards the end of time, not the beginning any longer.  What shall I do with the years that remain for me on this earth?  It's a question that I'm asking myself more and more these days, especially when it comes to the subject of being an educator.

I have been asked many times why it is that I am still teaching.  People want to know when I will try to stop and really enter the world of retirement.  They ask with the best of intentions about that thing called "quitting" but the truth is that I have no good answer for them, mostly because I don't even know myself when I will really call it "good" and stop teaching.  I do know the reason why I'm still teaching.  I'm teaching because I want to be.  It's pretty much plain and simple like that, you know?

Year #39 began three weeks ago and I am thankful that I have been placed with a wonderful group of 3rd graders at Big Pasture School, just up the road a ways to the north, across the Red River into the state of Oklahoma.  Every morning I arrive at school about 6:15 or so and prepare for our day together.  About an hour after they head back to their homes at day's end, I return to my home in Burkburnett as well.  We pack a whole lot of learning and fun into the very short amount of time that we are together.  I think of them always, even when we are not together.  I wonder how they are doing.  I pray for God to watch over them and keep them safe.

And I do one more thing.
I remain grateful for the blessing of belonging to them.

I'm not sure what lies ahead for me but whatever it is, I go forward in faith to find it.  For some strange reason, I feel as if there is something very special awaiting me in my future and I gotta tell you something.

I can't wait to find out what it is.

These guys are the best "401k's" that a teacher could ask for.  I never struck it rich in paychecks in the business of education, not even in nearly 40 years of trying.  My riches come from other things and you are looking at 19 of them.  I didn't do it for the money.  Not ever.  I did it because I wanted to and I have never looked back since.