what is this 'retirement' thing of which you speak? part 1

Now that Labor Day has come and gone, so has the dread that usually accompanied the start of school. BWAHAHAHA!  Saw crowded school parking lots and long-faced kids waiting at bus stops, and jollied my way down the street past them.  Yes, yes.  Go ahead, ask me if I miss my job at school.  NO!  I do not miss it.

Two exceptions stand out:  friends on staff, and working with students.  I particularly miss my friends because I moved several hundred miles away from them once I retired.  I can't just pick up a pizza and join them for lunch, or meet them for drinks after work.  Twice this year I travelled back and visited good friends.  But I won't be back until next year, and that puts a strain on friendships.

As for working with students, the best part was having fun teaching them important skills and playing games as a means of facilitating practice. Laughing and joking with the kids, teaching them how to have fun whether they won or lost, watching their senses of humor develop was priceless. But too much of the job had become attention to paperwork and documentation.  When clerical work became more important than therapy, it was time to stop.

One of the hardest transitions in retirement was stopping myself from haunting toy stores and game aisles, looking for fun new activities to use in therapy.  Drill and practice becomes mind-numbing for both the student and therapist.  Using a game as a practice-delivery device saved us all from going berserk.  The best games came home with me over the summer.  By the time I left, the shelves were filled with hundreds and thousands of dollars worth of games accumulated over the years.  Now they have new homes with other SLPs.  (Except for a very few of the very best games.  Shhhh.)

back again...

It comes as no surprise to those who know me, but my desk is (still?) a mess. Not as bad or as good as it has been in the past, but I always seem to have several projects going at once. Right now, for example, I am editing videotapes I made of my mother. These have to be sent out to many friends and family who attended her funeral. Apologies to all for how long this has taken me. In addition, I brought home several projects I was unable to complete at work this year. So now I have bags of papers that have to be sorted and punched before they can be returned to school. At times my living room looks like a recycling center, what with all the papers, trash, paper clips, stapler, and rubber bands. Fortunately, it has to be clean at least two days a week when I see clients.

More recently, the carpets were cleaned. This necessitated all the clutter I tend to accumulate (and, lo, this is legion) being put into the kitchen, laundry room, or up on something else. This hasn't been put back yet, because it's a perfect opportunity to go through some of this stuff and pitch or place it appropriately. Yet another project!

It's possible that these things will all be completed when I retire, but I doubt it. My mother had a closet-ful of unfinished objects. And now, so do I.

Speaking of ....

I'm currently reading "A Perfect Mess" by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman. It challenges the whole notion of organization at all costs as the way to Nirvana. And it turns out we are smarter in our disorganization that we might look. Hooray!

The Mess on my Desk

One of the biggest difficulties I have working with students is staying organized. Oh, I have the basics down. Each student has a folder with their work and service log in it. The timer is on the table, the attendance book is nearby. The problem is too many bright ideas.

As I'm working with a student, I may decide that other materials may be helpful. These materials may already be available "somewhere" in the office. That means a hunt through books or files to find what I want. Usually, though, what I really want is not available in the format I want it. That means I have to dig out what I need and THEN rework it. Often the result is a pile of materials on the corner of my desk and several files on my computer with the outlines of what I want. Meantime, students stream in and out the door.

By the end of the year, I've made do with whatever is at hand. The materials on the corner of my desk end up re-filed, and I've often forgotten why they were there. Time away from school is filled with non-school activities. Come fall, we're off to the races again!

In talking with other SLPs, I've discovered that this is a universal problem. If you have a particular system that works, by all means pass it on. I promise not to put it on the corner of my desk!