And a very happy June it is! Although rain and clouds dominate the Oregon skies, there is good in the air. My sixtieth birthday is creeping closer (the 9th) and I’m given to a bit of reflection. Having once said, “I can’t ever imagine myself being thirty years old,” in a week I’ll be double that! How curious. I am absolutely amazed at how the time has passed so quickly. I can still remember sitting in high school wishing for time to go faster, wishing for my driver’s license, wishing to go off to college, wishing for my own car. Fortunately, my wishing disease healed over time, and so I’ve chosen to make my adult life about “doing” rather than “wishing.” Oh, there’s been a lot of dreaming, but that’s what often powers the “doing.” I am grateful for the friends, family, and colleagues who continue to touch my life as the journey continues.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention another June happening. I’ll be retiring at the end of the month. I have been working in education since graduating college in 1973. I’ve worked as a classroom teacher in grades 2 through 8 as well as a language arts staff development specialist and grant director. I’m pleased I chose the route of education, and I leave proud of the work I’ve done.
I won’t be going far, though. I’ll continue to do consulting work with schools around writing. I’ll keep doing author visits, too. And make no mistake about it, I’ll be writing as well. All the projects I’ve put “on hold” for past ___ years, I’ll be pulling out of the files, evaluating them, and choosing to develop the ones in which I’m most interested. This will be hard. But, who said writing was supposed to be easy!
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