The Weirdness Of The End Of Summer When You’ve Quit Your Teaching Job
Will I ever get better at coping with major life changes?
As September fast approaches, the back-to-school feeling inevitably starts. It’s a weird mixture of feelings: nostalgia, anticipation, anxiety, excitment and melancholy all mixed into one.
Pretty much all of my life, September has been synonymous with going back to school. First it was my own school, college and university days; since then, as a primary school teacher for over a decade, the end of August has traditionally been spent going in to school to set up my classroom for the new school year: labelling books, trays and pegs; planning the first week’s lessons; organising stationery and resources; putting up displays.
Teachers and children all around the world are starting to gear up for the new school year: my own children are starting to talk about going back (for my son, it’ll be his first year in nursery school, and he is SO excited); the shops are full of displays of stationery, uniforms and lunchboxes; ex-colleagues are talking about when to go in and set up their classrooms, and what their new classes and timetables might be like.
This year — for the first time — I will not going back to school. My official last day of teaching was 19th July; as…
