Nothing To Do But Relax

 I had a revelation this morning.  I was standing in front of the sink in the kitchen, washing the breakfast dishes, and thinking about the next few days of holiday down time.  Since we are Jewish, these days always meant anything BUT Christmas meals and decorations and shopping and so forth. But, since I was a teacher, it always meant a lot of marking and then, after the marking was done, there would be the time to come down and finally find a place of relaxation.  But this year, there is no marking to do since I am finally retired from the classroom.  It is hard to imagine...after all of these years.....just how much energy it took to do all that marking AFTER the semester ended. I often tell my students, who are learning to be teachers, that they must enjoy their Christmas holidays because, once they start to teach, when the holidays come, it is always such a  busy time that one seldom really gets a chance to unwind and really relax. Even those twelve long weeks in the summer time can come and go too quickly to really enjoy them. As teachers, we are often so busy when we are away from the classroom, school breaks are only really holidays and not vacations.  Now I understand that even more because, being retired, some times one day rolls into the next.  So......if you read this, learn to enjoy your time away from  your students and try, really try, to manage your time so that you are not so busy with school work during the holidays that you come back to school and are not refreshed.