Back to School

I am back at work today. School librarians go back earlier than classroom teachers here in our neck of the woods.

For almost twenty years, my life has been regulated by the school year. Back to school, Halloween (but not anymore - we can't MENTION that in a public school), Thanksgiving, Christmas (I mean winter break - heaven help us if we wish someone a Merry Christmas), a couple of snow days (if we are lucky), Spring Break, then students running out the door on the last hot, sunny day of school. The days fly by. And then it begins again.

Tom and I will be retiring in a couple of years. The school calendar will become meaningless. Our lives will be measured by holidays spent with our family and planned vacations. Even the clock will become meaningless as we won't have to set it to get up to go to work ever again. We might possibly have to set it to catch an early plane to some tropical island. I think we can handle that. No problem.

This is a strange concept for me. I can't imagine what it will be like. We have both worked since we were 16. Even through college, we both worked. I stayed home for a few years with my children but, even then, I worked part-time. Our grandparents and parents always worked. They raised us that way. With a strong work ethic. Both our children have always worked. We have worked our whole lives. And now...we won't.

When August comes and the back to school sales begin, I won't feel that rush of excitement that a new school year brings. New students, new plans, new ideas to try, new books to order for the library, everything new and fresh. Teaching is the only job I can think of where we get a new beginning every single year. But no more.

I'm not sure how I will feel when that first August rolls around and the kids go back to school and I don't. I'm really not sure.

But I'm pretty sure I'm ready to find out.