Teacher Retirement: When is it official?

I’ve read many teacher posts about their “official” retirement this week. I got to thinking: When is a teacher’s official retirement? Is it the day you turn in your keys and walk out the door, or is it the first day the buses roll in the fall? 

For me, it was that day that I gave my classroom keys to the teacher who would be in my room next year. I got there early because I wanted one last look at my room. I needed that sense of closure. But he had already started to make that room his own. It wasn’t my room to say goodbye to anymore. It was a new room to welcome a new future. 

That first few days of summer, I just relaxed. I slept in until 8 or later, read books, sat in the sunshine and read books, and spent time at the lake. I was so exhausted from the school year that those first few days didn’t feel like retirement. Even the retirement luncheon, which should have felt like a rite of passage, didn’t feel final. 

However, the day my email stopped, and the account was closed, I felt the sting of finality. I no longer worked for the school system. That was the final goodbye, and it came two weeks early. That to me was my official retirement.

As I watch the school buses roll by, I should be missing school. But I am not. I don’t feel much of anything at all. I miss the people, and I miss being around kids. I don’t miss the building, and I don’t miss the job at all. 

We are all different and process things differently. I believe that whatever makes retirement feel final to a teacher is what makes their retirement official.