Miss Bindergarten's Last Day of Kindergarten

Today is my mom's last day of kindergarten.  Quite an accomplishment, considering she's been there 26 years.  Maybe the administration figured that since she didn't attend kindergarten herself, it would take her that long to figure out whether it's supposed to be called an oval or an ellipse.

All kidding aside, I am very proud of my mom for having such a successful teaching career.  In fact, I think I am a tad sentimental about her retiring.  I think about all the kids who she helped get off to a good start in formal education.  I think about how she has been the only teacher that has ever taught in her physical classroom, despite the building being almost 20 years old.  I think about her not "being a teacher" and it makes me a little sad.

She, on the other hand, is not sad.  At all.  Up until recently, she used to say things like, "I love my job!" and "what would I even do if I retired?"  But once the decision was made that this would be her last year, she has not looked back.  Even when I try to evoke some emotion:

Me: Won't you be sad that your career is over?                  

Kindergarten: The Early Years

Her: Nope.

Me: Will you miss doing (whatever they did at school that day)?
Her: Nope.

Me: You used to think you'd be bored being retired.  What do you think you'll do?
Her: Anything but teach.

Ooooookay.  Never mind then.  I'll just be over here being sentimental Sally by myself. 

But it does make me wonder what I will be like when I retire.  Will I miss drilling teeth?  Giving people shots?  Having complete strangers tell me they hate me?  Probably not.  But I think I will miss (most of) my patients, and the thought of selling a (hypothetical) practice that I've (hypothetically) worked so hard to build to some (hypothetical) whippersnapper that's fresh out of dental school already gives me the (not-so-hypothetical) heebie jeebies.

But my mom's career is different.  She has given her all to each classroom full of kids every year for 27 years, but eventually they move on.  To first grade, yes.  But also to middle school, then high school, college, and then real life.  And to think that my mom got to be their first teacher?  Well, that's pretty special in my book.  And if you cracked my mom's exterior, I think she'd admit that it has been pretty special for her too.  So Happy Retirement, Mom!!  Now maybe you can do something crazy, like not cross the tops of your capital Js...