I'm Back!

Well, six months is a long time to go without posting to my blog, but my excuse is that I was very busy and stressed. And here's why:
My school district offered the veteran teacher's a generous incentive if we would shuffle off to another ice floe and never be heard from again. Although it wasn't put that way--as a matter of fact, it was quite respectful--I had a hard time deciding whether to take it or not. But in the end, I did. On January 15th I signed and sent in the paperwork to confirm my retirement from the Pomona Unified School District. Unfortunately, there were still 6 more months of school to get over!
This year was one of the hardest I have ever experienced, so retirement was looking more and more positive. And yet, the doubts and the worries were endless. I did some intelligent things to allay the doubts, though:
First, I went to the STRS counselor and had him run the numbers for my retirement income from State Teachers Retirement. So I had concrete figures that would help me decide. If I only had the look of students' faces to help me decide, I would have long ago retired!
Then, I went to my CPA (who moved to another company, and who charged me a lot of money for his advice), and he ran the numbers for me also. The incentive is in the form of an annuity and the company in charge of the annuity offered 15(!) options on how to receive it. The CPA ran the numbers and helped me see which option I should choose.
Finally, I consulted my life coach and she helped me make the emotional decisions I needed to make.
Teaching has been a huge part of my life. It has saved my life and the life of my family in some ways, since I took the job to rescue the family when my ex-husband was out of work and in the hospital. And I did what a lot of people do: I got involved in the job and left my family to its own devices. I WAS a TEACHER first. Lots of coaching and therapy and praying for forgiveness has helped me see the errors I made.
So now I am on to the next Creative Passage. For at least the next year I am going to focus on ME;
Becoming a better ME. I think I know what that means but I l will be exploring it for this next year.
My new Creative Passage will be to develop the best ME possible.
This should be interesting!