Retirement – Removal of Something from Use

It’s been five years. Already. They say that time flies when you’re busy raising kids, working, and trying to stay vertical on the treadmill of life. I’m here to tell you that once you’ve been “removed from use” (according to the dictionary – it’s a real definition), time still flies. And no…I don’t feel that I’m completely non-useful. That sounds like another blog post is brewing…

Since it’s Father’s Day, I was looking at past blog posts to see if I’d written a tribute to my dad. I feel that I have written about him, but on a quick search, I couldn’t find anything so that is going to have to wait for another day. Though you will see a nod to him later in this post.

In my search for “dad”, I ran across this post that I apparently never shared. And since I’ve been thinking about the current status of my/our “retired” life, I thought now might be a good time. The following are my notes for a “speech” that I was graciously allowed to share at my retirement shindig and though I didn’t read this there, it helped me gather my thoughts during an emotional time. And unlike other writings that take time, this one just rolled off my fingertips faster than my head could think.

Here goes:

Thank you all for being here and thanks to those who couldn’t join us.  I especially want to thank our hostesses – Diane – my GLAD sister and in many ways my big sister, Laurie – my co-collaborator and role-model for viewing the possible in every opportunity, Marie – my…irreverent, joke-telling, crying, laughing … oh my…it’s hard to come up with a label for her!  What a joy to have been your colleague and to call each of you, “friend”.

Thank you to my husband, Glen, who has always encouraged me to take whichever path I chose to fulfill my dreams (including early retirement!). 

Niels and Blair – who only knew a mom who spent her evenings cutting, glueing, “typing”, working early and late, and who dragged them to family nights, to the condemned building to sit in the big blue chairs and watch videos when they were sick – Once when I stopped at Cambridge for “a minute” Blair implored me – “Mommy, no talk!”  She knew that I wasn’t good at telling time and that a “minute” never was…

I want my family to know how much I appreciate their love and support because without that, all of this would not have been possible.

Glen is very wise and recently, he forwarded me an email with some words that connected to how I am feeling about life as I reflect on my career. 

Invest in Yourself

Success isn’t the culmination of one triumphant moment. It’s a series of outcomes from choices and chance that lead to bigger moments. Surround yourself with the people that will get you there.

So now I’d like to tell a brief story of my “moments” and the people who “got me there”. Bear with me as this might be my last chance to have an audience. No more GLAD, staff meetings, PLCs. Not even any first graders to listen to me…who am I kidding?  Even they aren’t listening any more!  

This journey is about the people…

• Student teaching in Hamilton City where my master teacher, Eva, didn’t think a “gringa” had any business in a bilingual classroom – in the end she invited me to her home and taught me how to make tortillas. It was then that she told me that her experience with me had changed her mind about some gringas. 

• The night custodian at La Joya in Salinas who brought me dinner from his sister’s diner because he didn’t think that anyone should still be working at in their classroom at 7:00 at night. Jim and Sherry and their kids who adopted me since I didn’t have any family around.

• Chapman School in Chico – my dream job and dream life where my colleagues organized volleyball and softball teams, Lake Oroville camping trips, and parties, parties, parties. It was my dream life until I went to The Bear on the day I moved back and met my dream husband and after two years I moved to

• San Clemente – Concordia School where I began to understand what it truly meant to collaborate with a team as I team taught and job shared with Julie and Dana (and I had a view of the ocean).

• Shore Acres – where I was hired to work with a teacher who didn’t think anyone could teach as well as her – literally.  I’m not sure what she thought at the end of our year together, but after a year with me, she moved on and I stayed…
• This is also the time and place where thanks to Linda Rondeau, I got to spread my wings in ESL and where I met Diane – my other “life partner” as we began our almost 20 year journey with GLAD – these years provided me incredible learning and growth experiences and sisterhood.
• Cambridge – where I grew up as an educator – through so much laughter, so many tears, joys, dreams, successes and failures – where my colleagues challenged me to grow, to be better, to believe in all we could do together. I refer to these years as “The Golden Years”. They truly were the most challenging and fulfilling years of my career.

• Sun Terrace – a school and staff that accepted me and allowed me to go back to my roots – to my heart – to my first graders.

As I think about all of the roles that I have taken on over the years, they all start with the “R” word – relationships.  The memories that matter are the moments that I’ve shared with you all, with all of the parents and all all all of the kids.  Each person has taught me something that could only be learned by and through them.  Thank you, each of you, for sharing in my “passion” – because “career” just doesn’t seem like the right word.

Bringing my story full circle – You probably know that I told my kindergarten teacher, Miss Fine that I was going to be a teacher and that I took Spanish because my dad said “You live in California, you want to teach, why would you take French?”

So for my entire life, I’ve been on this journey…and…

I was recently reminded of a story from a few years back…I was covering a classroom without a teacher and as a substitute arrived and I turned the class over to her and was stepping out the door, a student shouted out…”You should be a teacher, you’re GOOD!”  

I’m so fortunate to have enjoyed a life doing what I loved and apparently, according to an 8 year old, I chose well.