And that's a wrap.

Bringing your career to a close after 35 years is no easy feat. Not surprisingly I suppose, the last few days, weeks and months were a conglomeration of memories, emotions, thoughts of relationships, special events and little moments of joy which swam around in my head incessantly. Emotional meltdowns were unpredictable and frequent. Although all of this might make it sound otherwise, I really am totally ready to retire! No doubts. No indecision. But undeniable heart swell with my lifetime of teaching memories.

So, how to spend the last few days??
Well, I've been a 'theme dresser' most of my teaching years. Because of that, I have literally dozens of T-shirts (not to mention full-out costumes) representing schools, events, organizations and ideals from over the years. I decided that I would wear a different special T-shirt every day for the month of June. It was fun. I loved picking them out each day and reflecting on their meaning to me. Some of them were even used as decor at my retirement gig!

AFTER!!

BEFORE :)

Of course, I did my share of packing during the last couple of weeks. No small task for any teacher, but you'd think with a cubicle and not a classroom, it might be easier. My cubicle, however, isn't like many others at the Ed Centre, as you can see in the 'before' pic. Packing it up really wasn't that hard, but it was a shocking transformation and seeing it emptied out ended up being harder for my office-mates than it was for me!
During June, I had a wonderful opportunity to accompany Meadowlane's choir for a special event honouring their retiring accompanist. Their music teacher, Kristie Stanzel, friend and ETFO colleague, needed someone at the last minute and I figured it would be quite a fitting thing for me to do. The fact that I taught at Meadowlane in the 90s and that this woman had also accompanied my choirs when I was there made this a particularly poignant event. So, I spent my very last day at Meadowlane PS, accompanying their lovely little choir. It was the perfect thing to do on my last official teaching day!

The last actual day of the school year was a PD day. We started the day in style with a scrumptious breakfast that Heidi brought in. It was actually the end of a week of yummy treats - both edible and drinkable :) Thanks to my co-workers for such deliciousness!
They also completely spoiled me with an Apple Store gift certificate! Their generosity (and Cindy's special good-bye speech) was quite overwhelming. I have been very lucky to work with such wonderful people. I'll miss them :(

We might have finished the work day a little early and headed out to Moxie's for lunch. I had never been there before - what a beautiful place! I had a Margarita, grilled salmon salad, and was treated to a special dessert to finish up. Yum!!

Trish was able to come for lunch too, which was pretty wonderful. When it was all over, we had a round of good-bye hugs, jumped in the car, did a little shopping at Canadian Tire, and headed home for a much anticipated and well needed nap.

And that was that.