I am done with my teaching job, and now I am moving on to NEW things!

The final day's post for my school blog consisted of the last words to the Beatles' song "The End".

The Beatles said it best.

It seems like the best of all possible ways for me to close the studio door on a career full of really great moments and a few very sad ones too, just like in real life. Because it is real life. Public school in Texas has been my job for over 20 years, and I need to once and for all GRADUATE.

I think the people parts of a school job are what makes the job quite interesting.

"...and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."

I have truly loved the "day-to-day" part of working in education...up until I realized how many other important things are still left undone in my life. I have lots that I still want to do and an undisclosed amount of time in which to do them.

The very sudden and unexpected death of my younger brother at the age of 55 brought this home to me in a tragic and inordinately personal way. I will write more about this when I feel strong enough to approach the story in writing - but for now let's say that losing him crushed my faith in having "years to come" where I could do "whatever I want". Maybe I have a lot of years, maybe I have a few, and it could be that I should live in the now and do the very best I can to live each day in a rich and meaningful way.

That is precisely what I choose to do starting now.

So I have now officially closed the door on my teaching job, and I have simultaneously opened the door to the rest of my days here on this planet. I have quite a bit of deep thinking to do, and a lot of that thinking revolves around revisiting my own personal spiritual space. I have always felt very spiritually aware, but I need to spend more time there, in a mindspace that I have not been visiting nearly enough lately - it comprises the most important part of who I am as a human being.

I am looking forward to that lengthy time of self-awareness and to seeing what I can do to tend to what is going to be a real important piece of my personal growth from this point forward.

So here is to the good ol' days that have now passed and the parts of my life that are still to come. I know that I am very fortunate to be alive and I hope to use the rest of my days to take care of myself and my loved ones as well as make some new things happen in my own life that I have been shelving for quite some time.

Studio door A-211 closed.

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