I am packing up decades of professional life. The papers have been filed with the state and the district and my retirement is official. I have the plaque — it’s pretty cool — maybe I’ll take a picture of it and post it. Effective May 25, I will be a “retired teacher.” Tonight, in my exhausted nearly brain-dead state, I can only breathe a tremendous sigh of relief. I still have essays to score and grades to post, but that’s no problem. I have boxes to move out of the classroom (notice I did not say my classroom?), but I’ve reduced the 20 I moved in with to nearly 1/4 of that, and that’s not problem.
Too tired to read another essay tonight, I practiced shallow DOF focus.
Dead flowers attract me. I find beauty in the blooms that tenaciously cling to the stems as their colors slowly darken and fade.
Tonight, these flowers are a metaphor for me, for the end of one career.
In a few days, I believe, fresh yellow flowers will signify a newly energized me as I open myself to new adventures and new ramblings through ordinary and extraordinary experiences.
