Taking The Summer Off

Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

916

Abstract

I hadn’t lost the thrill of a new beginning in the fall.Still, I am taking the summer off. For the first time in almost two decades, they don’t need me to teach summer school. I was asked to tutor over the summer, but I suggested another teacher for this who is quite happy to do it.Last summer, the school needed a second teacher for summer session 1, and I agreed to help out. Then the teacher for session 2 lost her father, and I filled in for her. I only had about two weeks off that summer.This summer now stretches endlessly before me. I can sleep in, have brunch with friends, take care of the yard on a weekday, and spend my days without feeling constantly rushed.I never had a summer like this. Before I started teaching summer school, summers were busy with kids’ activities: swimming lessons, art class, and travel to Disney World. It was

Options

just as busy as during the school year, just different.Many summers were also spent traveling. This year my family overseas and here in this country are either too busy or too ill to visit them. Again, a very unusual summer!Perhaps I will enjoy being lazy and doing very little. Perhaps I will be bored. Then again, I am never really bored! I can write more and read more. I can also finally take care of projects around the house that I put off all year.My retired friends tell me that they can’t fathom how they ever got everything done they do now while still holding down a full-time job. Perhaps I will feel like that by the end of the summer. Perhaps this summer will inspire me to make the next school year my last and really retire in 2023.I have until August 15 to figure out how I like this retirement practice round.</article></body>

Practicing for retirement

As we sat in the Great Hall today, sharing the sumptuous food we brought to the potluck and talking about our summer plans, I imagined that this could be my last day at school ever.

I expected to feel happy (and perhaps relieved) since it hadn’t been the easiest year for us teachers; instead, I felt a sense of loss and sadness. I even found myself looking forward to the first day of school. I was surprised that I still felt this anticipation, that I hadn’t lost the thrill of a new beginning in the fall.

Still, I am taking the summer off. For the first time in almost two decades, they don’t need me to teach summer school. I was asked to tutor over the summer, but I suggested another teacher for this who is quite happy to do it.

Last summer, the school needed a second teacher for summer session 1, and I agreed to help out. Then the teacher for session 2 lost her father, and I filled in for her. I only had about two weeks off that summer.

This summer now stretches endlessly before me. I can sleep in, have brunch with friends, take care of the yard on a weekday, and spend my days without feeling constantly rushed.

I never had a summer like this. Before I started teaching summer school, summers were busy with kids’ activities: swimming lessons, art class, and travel to Disney World. It was just as busy as during the school year, just different.

Many summers were also spent traveling. This year my family overseas and here in this country are either too busy or too ill to visit them. Again, a very unusual summer!

Perhaps I will enjoy being lazy and doing very little. Perhaps I will be bored. Then again, I am never really bored! I can write more and read more. I can also finally take care of projects around the house that I put off all year.

My retired friends tell me that they can’t fathom how they ever got everything done they do now while still holding down a full-time job. Perhaps I will feel like that by the end of the summer. Perhaps this summer will inspire me to make the next school year my last and really retire in 2023.

I have until August 15 to figure out how I like this retirement practice round.