Late last July, I made the decision to retire from a 34-year teaching career. My decision was mostly based on my fear of contracting COVID-19 since I had a couple of underlying factors that put me at risk, school plans that were worrisome with regard to COVID-19 risk and learning/teaching parameters/goals, and the fact that my 90+ parents would profit from some extra care and attention.
It was a difficult decision since I had not planned financially or time-wise to retire at that time. I thought I'd teach a couple more years before that decision. Yet, when I weighed the pros and cons, I knew it was the right decision.
Now, about nine months later, it seems like I've been retired for years, and I wonder how I made all that time to work and still do all that I am doing now. Life has embraced me, and what has been interesting is what has stayed the same and what has changed.
Project work
I clearly enjoy investing myself into deep, complex, multi-faceted projects. As an educator, I thought that was just part of my teaching life, but now I know it's part of who I am and what I enjoy. I really like project work, and now in my "retired" life I'm engaged in a large number of projects.
Time
As an educator I was always strapped for time. Now, retired, I actually have more time to devote to family, health, and personal interests and hobbies. That's awesome. I hope that school systems will reconsider the extensive time required for elementary educators to do their jobs well. Teaching well, in my opinion, is too time intensive which is not good for educators health and welfare. I believe that elementary school teachers require more just work conditions which includes more realistic time expectations.
Relationships
During my busy work schedule as an educator, I didn't have the time to invest in many relationships outside of work and family. Now with more time, I'm rethinking how I can best support these relationships in positive, proactive ways. This is a shift.
Budget
I spent a lot of money as an educator related to school purchases and costs related to working full time. Now home, the budget looks different, and I'm still figuring out what's the best spending/saving pattern.
Expectations
My expectations as to how I spend time, communicate, and plan are undergoing a shift too. I'm still thinking about what this means.
COVID-19
Retiring during a pandemic meant that it wasn't your typical retirement. Like everyone, I'm adjusting to our hopefully final pandemic months.
Retirement?
Retirement is an unpopular words these days because when we end one career, it doesn't mean we put our feet up and rest. Instead, it simply means we transition to a number of other endeavors. I'm not sure what the best replacement word is for retirement, but it needs to be a word that means meaningfully, actively engaged in life on your own and with others. Onward.