The new school year started today for my wife and my two daughters. For me, today is the day my retirement officially started. A new start for them, a new world for me.
For the past few years, my school day would begin by taking my daughters to school and waiting there until the bell rang and they were safely inside. Then, as the other Moms and Dads would make their coffee clutch plans, I would head to my car and drive to school to prepare for my own day. How I begrudged those other parents their freedom. It was never the fact that I didn’t want to be with my own students or that I preferred coffee that much. It was the fact that I didn’t have the freedom to control my fate. I had to go to work. No choice. I had to go.
No longer.
Today, I saw my youngest safely inside her school and I……….and I……….well, I went for coffee!!!!! I did. I got into my car and drove downtown and met two friends, also retired teachers, and we had coffee together on a sidewalk patio. The sun shone down upon our skin. We waved to friendly passersby. We chatted about weighty matters and feather-light ones, too. But, best of all, there was a school bell there that I was asked to ring. Not a tentative, self-conscience tinkle of a ring but, instead, a full-throttled, lusty declarative ring of freedom for all to hear. So, I rang that bell, loud and long and clear. Every time someone looked our way in puzzlement, my friends would point to me and announce, “It’s his first Tuesday!”, as if that explained everything.
But, it is my first Tuesday in this new life of mine. School traditionally starts on the first Tuesday after Labour Day in Canada. For the first time in 49 years, I was not in school on the first Tuesday. On this day, I was free. Freedom is intoxicating and I admit to feeling slightly off balance by it all but, in a good way. The best way I can describe it all is to point to those near-death experiences you read about. You know, the ones with the bright light that you are drawn toward and the loved ones awaiting you on the other side. Today, I got to experience the bright light that is the freedom to chart my own course. I am thankful to my two friends, Pat and Tracy, for being there to help me transition to the other side, as it were.
This is my first post on my new blog. Thank you for reading. I hope to see many of you following along as I embark on my journey with words. Thanks for being part of my first Tuesday. It is awesome to be here……on the other side!!!
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
Tom MacInnes, Writer 