My Final Comment
It’s been an emotional time for me, a time of reflection and
loss. My final working day I participated in a meeting for the last time and
then spent the afternoon removing and recycling 20 years of accumulated paper.
That was simultaneously cathartic and sad. Some of my finds amused me: one, a
memo from our former director, was a type written memo from the days before
computers were commonplace. It was fun to read for a bit but I willingly passed
it along to a colleague who I knew would appreciate it.
Mostly, the paper headed straight into the recycle bin,
except for the blank-on-one-side sheets that could be used in the lab as scrap
paper. My final acts were to strip my name off my storage area and filing
cabinet and watch as my colleagues claimed the newly available spaces! My
father left his career behind when he retired and counsels me to start anew in my
own retirement. It sounds like the right way to go, but I’m not ready yet to
completely forget a 30-year career in adult education.
A lot happened in my final weeks: a lovely potluck in my
speaking and listening class; an honourary luncheon attended by 35 (or more!)
students, my appearance at a graduation ceremony. Speaking to the graduates, I
had the chance to say goodbye formally and that gave my retirement a feeling of
finality that is both a bit scary and just right somehow.
Giving out marks and having a one on one with my English 12
students was a highlight. Your thoughtful words (and gifts—so many and so
wonderful) made me feel happy and satisfied that my work was done. You would
move on in your lives and might remember something you’d done in my classroom
with the same fondness as I. What more can I ask?
I know it’s not much and it’s been a long time coming but I
have to say to anyone who is reading this here: Thank you for all you did for
me (you know, all that homework and hard questions and talking and so on!) and
showing that, as people, we could learn more together than we could alone.
I’m thinking of continuing to write in retirement at my personal
blog, currently called “The Educated Web,” a leftover from my days as webmaster
for the PALC. What would I write about? Why, what it is like to start a new
life as a retiree of course!
—417 words
