Coming of Age

TOMORROW IS MY BIRTHDAY...and I am still on the shy side of 60, OK a sliver, I am Coming of Age. I finally will have things I never thought were going to happen in my life happen.

All this last week I have been thinking, this is difficult. To face the end of one responsibility and move on to the next with letting go of the things I was doing and moving forward. I was really in the "how do I get there from here" mode.

So I did what I always do, I plan. I revamped all the syllabi's for my classes, looked at the rubric's I created, mapped them to grading, and finally made about a dozen more PowerPoint's. Oh my students will hate me, they will sit there and moan about the length of these things again, but the good news for them is the more power points the less lecture and more time to spend on projects.

I have been looking at all the books, trying to find the right spark that will make doing the projects make sense and open up this impossible software to accomplish creative genius (not mine, theirs!) We need those light bulb moments that they can look at and say, wow, I didn't know I could do that. I found some good "tutorials" that will get them started and let them move from me telling them to them telling me where they found that tool to do the job!

I had a quick conversation with my NEW Dean, and finally realized, I don't have to do that work anymore, I can focus on just doing what I am suppose to do, teach graphics. That inspired me to make copies of the gazillion files on my computer (haven't been able to delete them yet) and hand over that part of the job to someone else! WOW, now, just have to say NO to the every day requests and say, sorry don't know about that.

I'm enrolled in the College Algebra (online) and with some fancy footwork and the 12 reference books, hopefully I will manage a C. I am also suppose to be enrolled in 3 other online courses for the Bachelor's program. WOW, I may get to that one before I am at retirement age too! I have not considered the cost of this yet, and my paychecks will probably not cover most of it, so I may have to determine if I need to cash in some future money to meet the goal.

As I sit here and type from my new "swivel, rocker, recliner" that my husband brought home last night I realize again, life changes. Letting go of old things is not easy, but getting comfortable in new surroundings can also be a challenge. I need to be careful that I don't lose the connection with people that I have. Since I am the first to "do" and the first to "complain that I did" I will have to look at my time differently, and know what that "to do" list really is. I want to put my energy where it belongs.

Well I'm going to enjoy some of that MAD birthday cake for breakfast and get another cup of coffee. My birthday will be tomorrow and I will be a new age, beginning a new era of my life!