As I mentioned a few posts ago, I am retiring in June from my job as a school librarian. Over the years, I've met thousands of wonderful kids and had the opportunity to hold many lovely, outstanding books in my hands, books which I have in turn shared with my students. For me, there aren't too many things more important than connecting kids with great literature, in making readers out of them. But in recent years the administration has changed and instead of working in one library where I had an opportunity to get to know the kids and the staff well and to build a collection responsive to their needs, I'm now working in 3 different libraries. I feel like a vagabond traveling from school to school. It is not the job I once loved and I am exhausted from trying to keep up with everything.
As the economic conditions have deteriorated, so has the job. The administration will not be replacing me, at least not this year, leaving 3 librarians to cover 6 schools. I can't imagine how they will manage. It also means that each of the libraries will be closed several days a week.
What will you do? people have asked. That won't be a problem, I assure them. The bigger problem will be trying to decide how to divide my time to pursue my interests. Robert has informed me that he's going to expand his full time atelier program - maybe in time for the summer. I want so much to study art full time. His students have turned out some amazing work in the year since he started the program and I long to be a part of it, to see how far I can push myself.
Alas, I also want to devote more time to writing and do some traveling with Dennis. Like art or any other discipline - even running or baseball - you have to practice it nearly every day if you want to improve. The atelier program is for three years - certainly not forever - but that's three years of my life. And time is precious. That's one of the reasons I'm retiring.
I guess I'm fortunate, in a sense. When some people retire, they feel lost without their jobs. Some people, in truth, define their very existence by their jobs. Teaching was one facet of my life, not all of me, and while I will miss most of the kids and the books and my colleagues, I will not miss the bureaucrats who seem to hold Smart Boards in higher regard than school librarians.
So, onward! I have exactly 57 days left. Never thought I'd be counting down the days like this but now that I've made a decision, I want to push forward with it.
