“I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. To stand for something, and to have made some difference that you lived at all.” —Leo Rosten
Note: This post has been sitting in drafts for the past month. Busy…busy…
After walking through the halls of the high school I just left, it occurred to me that I may never walk down them again. I spent high school there and vowed to never return when I left. After being gone for a decade and a half. I returned for another score of years. But after my overseas teaching stint, my kids will no longer be in that town and no telling where I may actually end up. Selling your house and car really frees your future.
I’m really not sure what difference I may have made all of these years. I think every educator wants to believe that the students we taught will tell stories about something they learned, some insight, some trancendental experience… But those of us who have relived experiences and happenings in school many decades before know that we eventually stop reliving and retelling the stories. The storytelling gives way to more recent events as we move forward in life.
Perhaps some of the activities that I used in my classes will still continue after I am gone, making those in the future wonder where these ideas/labs/lessons came from in the first place. But I know that there is no real legacy that I leave in the building. The business (or busyness) of education will continue long after I am gone and I am not so full of myself to believe that I was all that. But I really hope that my legacy is in what I may have imparted into the students that I have taught and you never know where that influence is realized. (By the way, hopefully it is good, but I am human and it is possible to have not given everyone the best experience.)
After 29 years of education, I know there are those whose lives I have touched and many students I have learned from as well. As I transition into another first year in a different place and culture, I know my true retirement is about 6 years from now.
And I have still more to give and learn; because you are not moving forward if you cease to push past what you believe you can do.
Louise,
You will never know what your real legacy is, though you may be lucky enough to see or hear a glimmer at some unexpected time in the future. For sure, your legacy is in the hearts and minds of the kids who passed through your classroom, and the building is simply the outer husk that will shrivel away from the people who move on. What is funny about revisiting buildings — or surveying them as you leave– is that it’s the small details that strike you: a broken corner of a window pane, a nick in the desktop, a floor tile with a stain on it. You remember the day these things happened or the student responsible for the “oops,” and the building momentarily revives in those old moments. Take the people you knew there with you in your heart, and let the building disappear.
As someone who also made a job shift with a defined number of years left before “real” retirement, I will tell you that it energizes you and renews your curiosity. You will savor it more and LOVE learning something new every day. You will miss a few of your really good teaching friends from before– those who know you well– but you will form new and different friendships very quickly in your new school. One of the blessings of teaching is that teachers are people people. The friendships you form with them LAST.
All your teaching friends, including me, are watching and cheering for you in your new adventure.
I know you have made lasting impressions on many a student. Mine included. I still remember things we did in Mr. Jim Meenely’s academic biology class and I am sure students will remember things from your classes.
Godspeed my friend and enjoy your new adventures!! I can’t wait to hear about them.