"I enjoy waking up and not having to go to work. So I do it three or four times a day." — Gene Perret
My last day of my teaching career was Wednesday, June 25, 2025. I walked to the end of our school's sidewalk and wave to each and every bus as they honked their horns and drove by all of us. We were all waving, retirement or not. Such is the way, a school year ends. On Thursday, June 26, I said my goodbyes to my colleagues, the administration and the administrative staff. I got in my car and thus my retirement coma began.
I was exhausted when I woke up the next day. I was so exhausted that I blindly gave our f"eline domesticuses" the Fancy Feast Chunky Chicken...They always get shrimp for breakfast. I suspected later that I would pay dearly for that. I went back to bed and fell asleep and for next four weeks, that is all I wanted to do. I slept. No alarms. Although, I would automatically wake up at 5 a.m. because that is what my body was conditioned to do for 20 years. No coffee brewing. The felines leared to sleep on my head to at least 6 a.m. I wasn't prepared for any of this.
I wasn't prepared for the coma. No one had warned me about that monumental change that would take place. Teachers live each day putting out one fire after another with respect to their students, their parents, their administrative responsibilities, their grades...Crossing your fingers each day, hoping nothing significantly dramatic or alarming would happen. A good day would mean, getting in my car, always exhausted but relieved that nothing significantly horrible would occcur. These past weeks of retirement, I discovered, were nothing more than letting my body heal, physically and emotionally.
I wasn't prepared for the shock of not having to problem solve classroom issues, planning lessons, answering to the standardized testing issues and the huge emotional needs of students, post Covid. The last five years of my career were like surviving in a purple haze of accountability. Accountability that people like my parents handled, not the teacher.
People have asked me if I was intending to travel and well, if you're in a coma, you're really just gaining your strength back. The traveling would be a future endeavor, a goal. Retirement means having new goals. Mine was to simply learn how to breath again. New health goals have surfaced, Retirement means guarding your health so you can enjoy the future ahead. You see, life goes by very rapidly. I had to use these weeks to regain all of the energy I had used within the past 20 years. Retired teachers have poured their heart, and their health into the success of students who will never fully understand that dedication...Unless they decide to become educators.
The coma is warranted. The coma is well-deserved. It's part of the healing process that I never realized had to take place if you are going to enjoy the next chapter of your life. Of course, I have been wondering if this process was normal. I have been told that "Yes girl. It definitly is." How I wish I had known this before June. I would have worried less. But, whatever...It's my time now. It is no longer a desire to win the educator race from September to June. When you retire from teaching, you have crossed the finish line.
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