Category Archives: Retirement

Thoughts of death—how much did I know? (Part 2)

Posted on August 23, 2015 by bakrawiec

Believing without a doubt in an afterlife, I look forward to knowing the answers to some elusive questions that have arisen in this life. Likewise, I have no doubt that I will get answers to questions I’ve never even thought … Continue reading →

Posted in Death, Dying, Living, Retirement, Transitions | Leave a comment

What have I done to myself? Retro Q & A revisited

Posted on August 22, 2015 by bakrawiec

Referring to my marketing experience in a recent post got me remembering. The work-life-identity-question I asked myself on June 30 when I submitted my resignation-for-retirement purposes letter: What have I done to myself? …That wasn’t the first time I posed … Continue reading →

Posted in Employment, Marketing, Retirement, Teaching, textbooks, Transitions | Leave a comment

Does form inform? …Informative! (I hope)

Posted on August 20, 2015 by bakrawiec

That’s it. It just happened again. I have no choice. I must say something. Every time I find a blog I want to follow, nine times out of ten, the blogger has chosen a design identical or very similar to … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog, Books, Layout & Design, Librarian, Reading, Retirement | Leave a comment

game called on account of darkness

Posted on August 19, 2015 by bakrawiec

When our son started playing Little League baseball and International youth soccer many years ago, the neighborhood parks didn’t have artificial lights. And so it happened now and then that the games were called on account of darkness. I thought … Continue reading →

Posted in Children, Education, Employment, Playfulness, Retirement | 2 Comments

cleaning up my own messes

Posted on August 18, 2015 by bakrawiec

Having been privileged these last ten years to interact with a thousand or more children transitioning into their school years, I‘ve seen up-close what R. Fulghum observed. From social behavior (playing fairly, keeping one’s hands to oneself, etc.), to personal … Continue reading →

Posted in Children, Education, Kindergarten, Lessons, Lifelong Learning, Retirement, Transitions | 2 Comments

more Phoenix than Pigeon

Posted on August 17, 2015 by bakrawiec

When facing new challenges and insecurities, as in retirement, it’s good to think back to past victories over unlikely starts, don’t you think? My most unlikely start came when my thirty-something-year-old husband, and father of our eight- and eleven-year-olds, learned … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Lab, Computers, Education, Library Media Specialist, Retirement | 3 Comments

Retiree regret? (a.k.a. buyers’ remorse)

Posted on August 16, 2015 by bakrawiec

Here I am, down to about two weeks before retirement. Fourteen days, which are about all the notice that employees in other lines of work need to give employers before resigning. My employer required sixty days. Because I have not … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Employment, Retirement | 7 Comments

waste not; want not

Posted on August 15, 2015 by bakrawiec

Based on prior posts you know: I left 50 unused, unreimbursed sick days on the table. Where did they go? Nowhere. Where could they have gone? Into a sick bank. Certainly a sick bank is not an uncommon phenomenon, even … Continue reading →

Posted in Employment, Retirement, Sick Days | Leave a comment

50 unused sick days: why I left them

Posted on August 14, 2015 by bakrawiec

Piggybacking on the last post: Yes! Despite my financial advisor’s advice to the contrary, I left fifty unused sick days on the table, in part, for all the reasons explained previously. However, if I’m honest with myself, there was yet … Continue reading →

Posted in Children, Employment, Lesson plans, Retirement, Students, Substitutes, Teachers, Teaching | Leave a comment

sick days: take them or leave them?

Posted on August 13, 2015 by bakrawiec

When our financial adviser reviewed my assets in anticipation of possible retirement, he assumed (incorrectly!) that I would be “paid” for unused sick days. ..At the time, I had more than fifty of them. “Well, then,” he advised, “if you … Continue reading →

Posted in Employment, Retirement | Leave a comment