I recently moved from my home of 40 years into a retirement community. In preparing for this move, I had to getting rid of most of my belongings that I had accumulated over four decades... some seemingly important, some not. I kept finding stuff I didn’t even know I had!
At least twice a week for about four months, I took a full car load of donations to a charity — so many trips that we were on a first name basis! I also took daily trips to the dumpster. Most people move more often. 40 years is a lot, and I felt so much pressure to have it done. I had to do it all myself, and it was exhausting. Finishing was the relief. This was both a physical and an emotional weight to literally carry and then set down.
In the professional realm, I carried some weight. I was a history teacher. An instance that comes to mind is that the superintendent called me in to tell me he thought I’d make a good department chair and that he was going to post the position. The problem was that he went around my current department chair, who hadn’t been notified. I had been the union representative, and felt that the superintendent was trying to buy me off. I thought that was immoral, so I told my department chair. I decided I didn’t want to be a part of that particular team. But he may have also legitimately wanted me to be department chair.
Teaching was just as challenging every day, right through my 37th and final year. Every year when Parent’s Night came around, I was a total wreck! Every single year I had butterflies. Teaching is a big responsibility, and therefore an enormous weight.
