Retirement is getting “realer” and “realer.”
July 13th, the Board of Education accepted and approved my resignation as an elementary library media specialist for retirement purposes.
Tonight, just about one month later, they are expected to approve the hiring of my LMS replacement, someone, I understand, who has a completely different professional background from mine.
As the new kid at the helm of the school library just a few years ago, I was relieved and exhilarated when my principal assured me that I was my own person—no need to feel as if I were the permanent substitute for the very popular LMS I was replacing; no need, unless I wanted, to continue her way of doing things, her initiatives.
I needed and cherished that freedom to be me, to bring to the program some fresh ideas that had been percolating in my brain.
(For the previous five years, I had been the traveling (overload) LMS, respecting the programs the “stationary” LMS’s, in whose libraries I worked a few (overflow) classes a week, had in place. I was ready to soar on my own.)
So, now, the same holds true for the person who will assume the opportunity and responsibility going forward in what is no longer “my” library–(and never really was)–rather, the library I stewarded.
And as much as I totally endorse and respect that freedom, I must admit that there is a part of me that wonders and hopes that some programs will remain, programs and initiatives I put into place, whose description I have begun to share in previous posts or will share in future ones. Programs, I believe, apart from me, that have merit on their own.
Sometimes it’s tough to let go.
One of the joys and privileges of sharing posts about those initiatives, I realize, is this. Even if my replacement opts not to continue some of the things I put in place, maybe some other librarian “out there” in cyberspace will have his or her interest piqued and do a custom variation. All will not be lost.
Even so, if no one opts to do so, if the programs end with me, so be it.
(Which reminds me, Sarah Weeks’ So B. It is one of my most favorite YA novels. Wished it won a Newbery. ..Which reminds me. We can’t always have what we wish.)
Retiremint 