Bittersweet Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has always been a special holiday for me as an adult.  As a kid, not so much.  My dad worked in Detroit and we 'celebrated' American Thanksgiving.  However, as a teacher, Thanksgiving rocks.  After 6 or so weeks of school, the first long weekend is greatly anticipated.  The icing on the cake is being able to spend Thanksgiving at the cottage in Grand Bend.  I bring along marking that I haven't quite finished, as well as my school Christmas Musical to block and to get myself prepared for auditions which happen right after Thanksgiving.  And there is still time for enjoying family and relaxing as well.

In my first few years of teaching, however, Thanksgiving was more a time to finally get a grip on planning and actually be prepared a week or two in advance.  During these early years of teaching I would haul text books, and marking, and reference material to Thanksgiving gatherings and spend most of my time on school work.  As I improved my skills as a teacher, the ratio of the time I would have to spend on school work compared to leisure time diminished.

This year however has been different.  For the first time in my career, my Thanksgiving work-to-rest percentage was - zero.  I spent this past entire long weekend on leisure time with my family.  Not because I have become Super Teacher, or any such, but because I have had no extra-curriculars at school this year.  In a normal year,  I would have been deep into my second Glee Club presentation and would have already spent hours on the Junior Christmas Musical which would have meant my marking would have backed up a bit as well.  But this is not a normal year.

In this, my retirement year, it would have been nice to be able to do one last Junior Christmas Musical, one more Intermediate Musical, one more each of Grade 7, Grade 8, and Travel Bands, one final Band Trip to Wonderland, and a myriad of other extra-curriculars.  But it appears that is not going to happen.  Volunteer my time when I'm being treated unfairly by my employer?  Really?  My mother didn't raise no idiot.

One would expect that I'd be feeling thankful that I'm getting out when I am.
Regrettably, politics has tarnished my exit from a lifelong career and tainted it bittersweet.