I have officially retired from my job running the Media Center at an elementary school.

It strikes me that “retired” is a peculiar word. Has anyone looked up the definition of retired? It’s from a French verb “retirer” meaning to draw back or withdraw, thus, in contemporary terms, leave your job.

Hmmm… To me it sounds like leaving a place where you have been tired and going to a new place that will make you “tired again.” Re-tired.

That doesn’t work for me.

I have loved my job, truly loved it. Books are my passion, and education is my passion, and children are my passion. All three at once made me feel like I was absolutely in the right place at the right time, and the wonderful send-off I got from fellow educators, students, and students’ parents affirms that belief. But it is definitely time to go, and I know that is true because emotional, dramatic me shed very few tears. My friends love me, but will not miss me. And…seven hundred 5 to 11-year-olds per year for 14 years definitely wear a person out. I am tired.

But I am not leaving this job to go to another occupation that will make me “tired again.” I am leaving this job to focus all of my joy and stamina into the things that have fallen by the wayside as I plowed the majority of my time and energy into “the job.” I’m not sorry, have no regrets, but I am chomping at the bit to begin this new stage of my life. Not “retired” but “renewed.” Not get “tired again” but “begin again.”

So people who have very kindly warned me against becoming sedentary and offered–very helpfully–that I should find ways to stay busy, need not worry. I’m quite sure I don’t have enough life left to get everything done, and so the real challenge will be pacing myself so that I don’t get re-tired.