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.)