Unimaginable

On Friday morning for the very first time in my adult life I will wake up to no "organized" responsibility.

But, MillyWilly, you query -- "Didn't you quit teaching in 1990 to start a new life and on the day after Paseo High School closed for the final time, didn't you wake up that morning with no schedule, no work, nothing to do but laze around?"

That, my friends, is a resounding "N O!"  That summer we were still trying desperately to save the old high school and my summer was a round of 7 a.m. meetings with lawyers, J.E. Dunn (boo!), architects, and students I was responsible for carting all over the darned city while we created beautiful plans to restore a historic structure -- plans at which no one really looked but those of us working to save the school.  And then in the fall I got violently ill, had surgery, recovered, and immediately had to find a job.

But this Friday I will get up and face no concrete plans.  No schedule I have to follow.  Nobody to account to for my time.  Even better a small but regular social security check will arrive in the mail every 4th Wednesday of the month -- hopefully providing enough to keep us feed, housed, and clothed for the duration. 

I started school when I was five and graduated college at 21.  The summers were pretty much mine until I went to college -- then I usually attended summer school.  At 21 I got a job teaching and if you think teachers have the summer off, think again.  Every summer involved either re-education for me, workshops, or summer school for kids. I earned my master's degree during the summers -- and then 36 hours beyond my masters.  When I left teaching in 1990 I worked 12 months out of the year in business.  Back to teaching in 2006 and I went to summer school or wrote curriculum for the district every June and July.  In August these days teachers start school at the beginning of the month.  

Friday in simply unimaginable.  I can't really believe I'm finally going to be free.  I will be able to choose what I do and when I do it.  I may not have a big pile of extra money to choose to do everything I'm dreaming of (like adding a bathroom to the house or moving the washer / dryer upstairs), but I will have my freedom and no schedule to maintain.  I keep repeating it -- it's simply unimaginable.  Freedom finally comes this Friday.  What will it be like?