After retiring from the classroom...

by Brad
(Kansas)

WENDY: Oh, How I LOVE This Photo! Thank you!!

My wife and I both decided it was finally feasible to retire from our roles as educators two years ago.

The adjustment has been tricky at times, especially the part about missing our students, but the freedom has allowed us to do things we normally wouldn't have time to do.

Our list includes spending one day a week with my wife's out-of-town parents (both of mine passed away two years ago). They receive daily home health care from a niece, so our continual attention is not required.

We have also found ourselves travelling to Florida four times a year for a month-long duration each time. Our daughter and her family live near Cape Canaveral, and we are very welcome as we make their lives easier by helping with the two grandchildren while there.

Travelling to other parts of the United States and abroad during the fall, winter, and spring is also new for us since we never had a chance to enjoy the off seasons while teaching.

Unfortunately, these periods of highlight are balanced by weeks of tedium and household chores while at home. These are the days that are the most challenging.

We invested in a tandem bike, but use it infrequently as there are few bike-friendly paths and streets in our area.

Trips to the gym, reading, yard work, walks, church, weekday movie theater matinees, and eating out with friends break up the monotony, but only temporarily.

Online activity and television take up way too much of the hours in the evenings, but challenging each other to board games, Scrabble, and cards occasionally serve as distractions from these sedentary wasters of time.

Volunteering was something we both thought would be a big part of our retirement plan, but nothing has served as a calling quite yet. Most opportunities to help out would end up being hit-and-miss and project us as unreliable, as we are gone for long periods several times throughout the year.

I can't even enjoy a goal of gardening as the lengthy absences preclude the care and maintenance required. For now, this is our retirement, and we find pleasure in being tied to no one's schedule but our own.

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