When you retire from teaching, one of the feelings you wrestle with is the guilt of leaving your colleagues and friends in the middle of the work. It's unavoidable--after all, the work is never done. 1/

One of the things I carry from my own father is the notion that if something needs to be done, and you are capable of doing it, then you should do it. 2/

But the moment to retire arrives, for whatever reason, and you have to shake the notion that you should stay and help your colleagues and friends continue the work. 3/

You know that you're not indispensable or irreplaceable, and that someone will step into your work just as you stepped into someone's before you. But still. The guilt-flavored feels. 4/

I imagine that some teachers are wrestling now, struggling with the feelings that they are walking away from a burning building while others are running into it. 5/

This is my third year out, and watching my wife and my old friends, I feel that twitch-- (They could probably use me as a sub). 6/

To those of you wrestling with the decision--there is no shame in walking away because it's time for you to walk away. The alternative is to work until you die, and that's not much of a choice. 7/

Do what you need to do. You can only give so much. It's okay to tap out. 8/