{"id":1577,"date":"2016-01-25T05:23:15","date_gmt":"2016-01-25T12:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wordpress\/?p=1577"},"modified":"2016-01-25T05:25:51","modified_gmt":"2016-01-25T12:25:51","slug":"14-more-mondays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/?p=1577","title":{"rendered":"14 More Mondays"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>So I\u2019m still at the beginning of my last semester, but already have some perceptions of retirement.<\/p>\n

The first is relief (OK, and maybe some pride) in getting the job done. Like a climber who has the peak in view and realizes that his energy level is high and the weather is holding, it looks like I\u2019m going to make it. <\/p>\n

The second is anticipation. Folks keep asking what I\u2019ll do. Not to worry, I have a lengthy list. There are things school teachers never get to do: like see the fall foliage in New England or surprise one\u2019s spouse with a spontaneous midweek visit to Santa Fe.<\/p>\n

And, ironically, writing teachers don\u2019t get to write, not the long stuff. At least this writing teacher doesn\u2019t. I like reading student essays, but the activity fills up that part of my brain needed for my own creativity.<\/p>\n

And I am anticipating unstructured leisure, the kind children enjoy where they can plan their days spontaneously as they unfold. I once wrote a blog <\/a>and column <\/a>about it if you\u2019re interested.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I expect to spend my first summer purposefully without plans. And I know it will be fun but won\u2019t last past August. I\u2019m too much of a doer.<\/p>\n

Finally, not all my preretirement feelings are positive. I\u2019m also experiencing a creeping sadness, like the emotion one feels when his children grow out of childhood. I know I need to go. It\u2019s time. But I\u2019ll miss the students.<\/p>\n

Facebook is a blessing, and I\u2019ll keep up with you people I\u2019ve already taught. But I\u2019m haunted by the thought of those I\u2019ll never meet. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So I\u2019m still at the beginning of my last semester, but already have some perceptions of retirement. The first is relief (OK, and maybe some pride) in getting the job done. Like a climber who has the peak in view and realizes that his energy level is high and the weather is holding, it looks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1577"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1580,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1577\/revisions\/1580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}