Lots of people want to know “What are you doing now that you’re retired?” I’ve found that this question is not always the easiest to answer. I’m doing a lot, yet compared to former days in my life, I’m not doing as much. So I decided, more for self-reflection than anything, to tell a bit about what a 29 year teaching veteran does when he suddenly finds himself outside the classroom.
Part Two – Activities
One of the parts of retirement that I knew needed to be addressed was finding activities to participate in during the time I would ordinarily be at work. I have to admit there’s a part of me that was feeling guilty when I had “nothing to do.” I’ve become involved in several areas of service thus far and thought I would share about those here.
The church I am a member of, Mt. Pisgah Lutheran, has a food pantry to help out less-fortunate families. I was contacted by the director wanting to know if I would willing to help with that outreach program. I’m going to be assisting with the pick-up of food products from local food banks. Tomorrow will be my first trip with that duty. Some of the trips will involved traveling to Winston-Salem, but most will be local. Despite the fact I’ve had some aches and pains over the past several months, I’m looking forward to helping out in this area.
Another activity I’m becoming involved with is Meals-On-Wheels. My father is involved in this DSS outreach and that’s where I first got the idea it would be good to pursue. I had also posted a “God Wants You To Know” on my FB page and a high school classmate said that post had reminded her of an email that she had received saying they were in desperate need of help. I’ve attended the orientation session and will be making my first delivery on October 6th. Ironically, I will be traveling in many of the streets of the Kenworth neighborhood that were my haunts growing up.
I’m working on Friday nights at the radio station that I’ve done high school football games with since 1985. I go in around 9 pm and help get scores from the area and then go on the air from 10 p.m. until around 10:50 p.m. I really enjoy working in radio and if there were local jobs available, it’s something I would love to get more directly involved with as a new vocation.
One of the things that I’ve considered doing is working at a local funeral home. It’s something that’s always held my interest and I’m thinking I would be good at helping families during their time of bereavement. I need to update my resume before I decide to go knocking on doors of the local establishments. I’m not 100% sure of this decision yet, but I do keep in the back of my mind for a future possibility.
I will have to admit that I do miss teaching a lot more than I thought I would. I have to wait six months to substitute teach and I’m thinking if nothing substantial has made itself obvious to me by that point, I’ll probably add my name to the sub list. I’m also going to try to help my daughter with her fifth grade classroom doing some tutoring.
David Lee 