Retirement Ahead

     Today, I sit here contemplating my retirement after 30 years of teaching English to junior high students.  I will retire in just thirty-four school days.  It is so strange to know that I will no longer be ruled by the alarm clock, the lesson plan, or the stack of papers and notebooks to grade.  I will no longer have anyone telling me that I have to be somewhere at a certain time.  That's a strange thought to know that NO one will have any control over my time but me.

     My  life has always been measured in semesters.  How strange to know that now my life will be  measured in days, or weeks, or months.  Maybe it will be measured by seasons or by rainy days.  Maybe it will be measured by how long a stack of wood lasts, or by how many times I mow.  Maybe it will be measured in how many books I read, or how many pages I scrap.  Maybe it will be measured by how many things I knit or crochet.

     I don't know how this new life will be.  I've always worked.  I'm both excited and scared.  There is always the possibility that this will be too much freedom, too little structure.  We'll see.