Party #2 - The ETFO Dinner

What a night! And ETFO really knows how to do it! Over 800 guests and meals served, wine on every table to celebrate the paying off of the ETFO office mortgage, wonderful live music provided by everyone's favorite duo - Darrell and Rod, recognition of 85 retirees, awards, speeches, dancing - what an amazing evening! I invited Mum to join us - it's not every day your daughter retires!
Also, for me, this really was a once in a lifetime night. A couple of weeks before, I was asked to deliver the speech on behalf of retirees - sort of a 'valedictorian' style thing. I was thrilled and honoured to be asked. In previous years, I have always looked forward to this speech. The stories and reflections shared by the invited speaker have so sincerely represented the voice of those who have spent their lives in this profession. I have to confess that I have imagined myself doing this, however, in spite of my fantasies, I completely underestimated the weight of this responsibility as I wrote, rewrote, edited, and in all other ways prepared during the days ahead. My emotions swung wildly from total overwhelm to joyous excitement.
In the writing process, I identified a few goals for myself: I wanted each retiree to feel that I expressed some of what they were feeling, I wanted to include some humour, possibly a little sentimentality, to focus on some issues that are significant in education today, and possibly to challenge some thinking in areas of equity and 21st century teaching. Of
course I had to include a mention of social media use, and I even decided to write into my speech an opportunity for me to take a mid-speech selfie. The manic face you see here >>
is a pretty good reflection of my mood in the moment!
The best word I can use to describe what it felt like that night to speak to the crowd of 800 is exhilarating. I loved every minute of it! The audience was so receptive - I felt like I was speaking to a room of friends! That's pretty unbelievable when you think of it. What an experience - I am so lucky! In case you're interested, here is a link to my speech, which was also shared with the retirees following the evening.
Another incredible surprise of the night was receiving the 'President's Award' for Leadership from President Greg Weiler. Surprised, honoured and overwhelmed hardly begin to express how I felt. WOW.


One of my true joys of the evening was watching Trish's face throughout everything that went on - her looks of support, encouragement, joy and love cannot really be described in words. I know I wasn't easy to live with in the days leading up to this night (#understatement) and I can't thank her enough for listening and cheering and sharing all of this with me in such a selfless and sincere way. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo