9 Months

Only nine months left - I could carry and deliver a baby within that timeframe. It is actually 38 weeks, and I will be walking out of the school building where I have spent the last 22 years for my last time.

9 Months - but who's counting?

Last year I was very excited as I contemplated what life would be like after retirement. Using mornings for exercise rather than commuting, getting the laundry and shopping done on weekdays rather than cramming it all into a Saturday, and time to visit with family and friends rather than fellow inmates.

Yet now as I am down to counting the weeks, the fears are setting in. Fear of becoming lazy because I will have so much leisure time, fear of becoming a recluse, and the looming fear of will there be enough money to make the ends meet. And sometimes I feel that little demon on my shoulder reminding me that this is the last chapter of the book. Childhood, school years, newlywed days, motherhood, profession...all those chapters have already been read and I am in the last quarter of the story. I try to ignore that little demon as much as possible.

All in all, doing what I want between 9-5 instead of what the "boss man" wants has a nice ring to it.

Retirement is when the living is easy and the payments are hard — Unknown wise person