Taking Back My Time

The time has arrived to return to work. As always, the summer seemed to slip by so quickly. And as always, I'm not ready for the lazy days to end.

I've reached the point in my life where I'm thinking a lot about retirement. After 35 years in the classroom, it's definitely time to turn off the lights and close the door. My heart simply isn't into going through the motions of prepping, teaching, grading repeat. My heart is all about being home with the boys and moving slowly through our days. Our summer was absolutely lovely, and I want this kind of life all the time now, not just for three months of the year.

The main issue keeping me from retiring now is health insurance. If I knew I had really good insurance that wasn't going to cost a fortune, I'd retire right now. But that won't be the case, so I'm going to keep working at least two more years to hang onto the insurance I currently have. The upside is I do teach at a wonderful place. I have awesome colleagues and admin. I've been incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to teach where I do for the bulk of my career.

So I'll stay a bit longer.

The one thing I'm so grateful for regarding my job is being allowed to teach from home, which means I'm not driving every day and putting a lot of miles on my car. This also saves me a lot of money in gas. Given the state of the world, especially the decisions being made by the current administration, the price for gas just keeps going up. I'd be spending quite a chunk each week for gas alone if I had to go to campus every day.

Teaching from home also allows me to use my time differently. Instead of going through the routine of getting up, fixing breakfast, taking care of the dogs, dressing for work, then driving for 45 minutes to get to work, I get up, take care of the dogs, go for a walk with the dogs, have breakfast, sit out back with the dogs while I drink my coffee, then sit at my computer to work. I'm much more relaxed when I'm working. I think this actually makes me a better teacher as I'm not in a rush, I'm not stressed, and I'm not feeling overwhelmed.

The one area connected to how I use my time that I need to work on is reading about the state of our country. I read far too much every day, and all this does is make me angry and sad. Angry that so many voted for such a horrible person to be the leader of the free world. Angry that so many enable him. Angry that so many want to cuddle up to him for power and attention. Angry that those who are in a position to stop him are not doing so. 

After the anger the sadness seeps in. Sadness for those who have lost the safety net that helped them put food on the table. Sadness for those who have lost the health insurance that allowed them to seek medical attention. Sadness for those whose families have been torn apart because they came here looking for a better life. 

I'm tired of being angry and sad every day, and I know the only way to reduce these reactions is to stop reading, stop watching news reports. I'm going to try to take back some of the time I spend on both by just reading one particular person who writes nearly everyday. She's amazing and I trust her take on what is happening across the different parts of our government. I won't totally check out, as this is exactly what our government wants. I won't stay quiet, either.

I'm done with shitty humans.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Finding Calm Amidst the Pines

Image
The Orange trail Spring was really trying to push Winter off center stage the last few weeks, and in doing so, the spring fever kicked in something fierce. I'd already been having a tough time sitting down in front of the computer to complete work, and the sunny, warmer days were not helping one teeny-tiny bit. All I wanted was to be outside, which is exactly what I did last weekend and right up until it turned cold again this week. The boys and I have had some wonderful long walks, one of which was at Sand Ridge. They were troopers, finishing the day with nearly 9 miles after our usual morning walk, hiking the Brown trail, then hiking a bit of the Orange trail. I liked the Orange trail so much I went back the next day and hiked alone. I wanted to slow down and take some pictures of the trail and its surroundings. They say nature is the cure for what ails you, and I completely agree. The hush amidst the pines. The softness of the ground covered with pine needles. The flit of the ch...
Read more

Looking Forward to 2024

2023 was okay. I really have nothing to complain about regarding life in general throughout 2023.  Well . . . then again . . . that's not entirely true. Mostly true, but there was that one thing . . .. The thing that happened on April 1st. Of all days, it had to happen on this day. This was the day I drove myself to the ER that's 40 minutes away, after standing up from my recliner and feeling my heart take off. It was like I had just run the 100 meter dash, giving my all to cross that finish line first. Only I didn't run the 100 meter dash. I merely stood up from my recliner. I was on my way to take a shower, so I continued to do so, hoping my heart would slow down and go back to my usual 70ish heart rate. In the shower, my heart just kept on, and the more it didn't slow down, the more scared I became. So I finished the shower, got dressed, and drove myself to the ER. That drive was surreal. I just kept thinking: if I pass out, I hope I veer off to the right, into the b...
Read more

Taking My Health Into My Own Hands (Cuz My Doc Certainly Isn't All That Helpful)

After a month of tracking my glucose levels, I've learned a few things, the most important being I need to have something sweet in the evenings. An orange. A fruit smoothie. A vegan chocolate chip cookie. When I don't, my glucose dips with each consecutive morning after not having something sweet, the monitor showing my glucose going lower and lower. While I never went below 79, I was inching lower each morning after not having something sweet the evening before. So now, I make sure I have fruit or a smoothie with dinner. Every now and then I'll have an orange juice mid-day just because. While I don't think a month is long enough to really know if my glucose levels were the culprit for the tachycardia, I have felt so much better. The weird feeling I'd been experiencing when the tachycardia was happening has not happened. The waves of heat that would wash over me, causing me to peel off my sweatshirt or sweater even though my house is at 65 degrees haven't happen...
Read more