Closing a Chapter

 

Today would have been my first day back at work at the high school library after the summer break.

Would have been... however, I quit over the summer. It's a long story and I don't want to bore you with it. I did feel though that this job no longer was healthy for my own well-being.

The past year, which definitely was the weirdest school year I ever experienced, gave me a lot of opportunity to re-assess what is important in my life. At the beginning of 2020 - when no one was talking about COVID-19 - I had turned 60 which for me was the point where I seriously thought about what to make of the time that I still have. When I started this job in the high school library - right after my daughter had graduated from the same school - I enjoyed it even though every now and then it was quite a drag. Except for the first year, every year I worked there was marked by major school closures due to wildfires (the Tubbs fire in October 2017 that burned down several neighborhoods in our city was the first one), smoke and preventative power shut-offs. We dealt with it, grateful for the long summer break that gave us the opportunity to relax and start the next school year with new energy.

I started with that same level of new energy after last year's summer, but something changed profoundly during the pandemic school year. The workload was okay and I finally had the time to get tasks done that I had wanted to accomplish for a long time. But I did not enjoy it anymore. Yes, there are always periods when the job is not particularly enjoyable - but this was somehow different. 

I wrestled with the situation for a long time, tried to tell myself that this would be temporary, that I am a positive person who is resilient and most of all, who DOESN'T QUIT. I even started to meditate hoping that it would help me with my anxiety that I had developed (very new for me) and that would get me back in the "right mindset". But there was another voice, first quite low, but eventually getting louder and demanding to be heard. It was a constant "do you really want to go on like this?".

So I thought - one more year. That perked me up for the remaining weeks of the school year. And then, at the end of the last day of the school year, when I was ready to go home, I took all my personal stuff with me - not that there was a lot, just a couple photos of my daughter, a couple pens and a notebook. There was this thought, "maye I don't come back for another year, so take your things just in case".

Five days later I wrote my letter of resignation.

Now I can solely concentrate on my teaching job at the German School which has become considerably more work intensive over the past 15 months and which is the job I truly enjoy and love. The overwhelming emotion at this point is relief. This morning, when I woke up my first thought was "I'm so glad I don't have to go to the high school anymore!".

Just like my daughter said five years ago after graduating, I say today "I'm done!"

Hot August

 

August was the hottest month we have had so far this year - and also the smokiest. There have been so many wildfires burning all over California, most of them caused by dry lightning, that the air quality became extremely poor in most of the state - and many parts of the country since the fires in California haven't been the only ones. Half of the month we stayed inside with the windows and doors shut because it was too unhealthy to venture outside. Two of the fires are burning in our county and we had many evacuations orders which were all reduced to warnings (which means be ready to evacuate any time). The fires are close to the Russian River which is an important water source for us, and in order to keep enough pressure for the firefighters to battle that fire we were all asked to conserve water as much as we can. I stopped watering my garden (except for the veggies) and once again felt relieved that I had the foresight to plant a drought tolerant garden. So far I haven't lost a single plant, and two nights ago we even had a little rain. The past few days have been foggy with much better air yesterday. However, the weekend ahead is supposed to bring another heat wave with temperatures up to 106F - I hope the garden can take it.

I missed spending time in the garden. I was lucky to get in some hikes in our beautiful Regional Parks, some of them with Kaefer. We went early in the morning to avoid the midday heat and enjoyed nature, saw wildlife and had some good conversations while hiking the trails. She is leaving in less than a week, my heart is heavy, but I also know that I will be okay after a few days when I know that she has arrived safely, has moved into her flat and hopefully doesn't have to quarantine too long. She will be tested at the airport and the result will be back within 48 hours, so hopefully she can go outside after two days.

Work at the high school started the first week of August. It has been rather quiet in the beginning and I could finish some of the things that haven't been done since March when the schools closed down. The school year started on August 17th and of course it's all distance learning. It is very strange to be back on campus without any students being there. This week we're distributing textbooks which is a huge undertaking (we will be done tomorrow evening) for almost 1600 students. Even though I felt bone tired every evening, it was so nice to see the students again. Sure, we were all wearing masks, my colleague and I were working behind Plexiglas, but nevertheless, there suddenly was life on the campus. I hadn't expected that I would enjoy these five days so much.

In order to stay sane I knitted a lot - several hats and socks and I also finally finished the sweater for Kaefer that took forever to knit up (mainly because I had to unravel parts of it again). I was quite busy with my Etsy shop selling socks and photo cards which, of course, was very welcome, too. The positive and the negative pretty much balanced out this month.

High School Madness

The last few weeks of the high school year are usually extremely busy and often quite chaotic. Our library is closed, but we have the back windows open (those are the windows to the textbookroom) where students can return their textbooks and English novels, pay fines for damaged or lost books and seniors get their clearance so that they can walk in the graduation ceremony.

The first day of this madness I worked on my own since my colleague had a day off, and when I came to work in the morning I was greeted by this:

A non-working computer. Yay!!!

That meant that I packed all the books I received on a cart, wheeled them to the computer on my desk in the library where I checked them in, brought them  in the workroom to clean them and finally back into the textbookroom where I could finally put them on the shelves.

 Please notice the empty shelves...

Our IT guy arrived an hour later, fixed the computer and after that everything went a bit more smoothly.

We usually put the books on carts according to section before we shelve them. It's a more efficient system since we always have to move the shelves. They look strong, but they're very sensitive, and the one thing we don't want during these weeks are broken shelves that don't move anymore. That happened to us last year when we couldn't access the math section anymore.

No matter how many books we received during the day, every evening before I left work most of them were cleared away and the carts were empty, ready for the onslaught of the next day.

The shelves filled up more and more each day.

I actually love working at the back windows because I can see what's going on. Some students were painting the ground and one day during lunch break the band played a couple songs.

The last few days of the school year were minimum days when students went home right after finals. It was lovely to have the campus to ourselves and wander along the empty buildings.

Even the crows enjoyed the quiet.

I finally had time to admire the impressive artwork of our students.

Every evening when I came home I was ready for this before dinner - I think I deserved it after the madness of each day.

An Image and Its Story: May 2019

Since I have joined The 100 Day Project I have mainly shot pictures for my theme "100 days in my garden" throughout the month and not much else. May is also the month of high school madness due to the end of the school year and the high amount of work in the school library. Ergo - not much else was going on in regards to photography. No wonder then that my chosen photo - actually two of them that I collaged into one image - is from the garden, but also connected to work. Both were taken on the very last day of the month.

Friday was the last day of school which meant we had a steady flow of students wanting to return their books, paying overdue fines and getting clearance slips for their graduation ceremony in the evening. I opened up earlier in the morning than usual and the first time I could actually sit down for a couple of minutes was almost four hours later. When I finally got home another four hours later I was totally wiped out, my feet and hips hurt and the only thing I was able to do was lying down on the sofa and within minutes I was fast asleep. Oh, the bliss of a good nap! It was early evening by then, the Geek came home from his work and we just had a lovely quiet hour outside in the garden, sipping a glass of rosé and reading - a book I had brought home form the library that was just returned a couple days before. It was pure bliss and the perfect start in the weekend.

I have a few more days at work until my long summer break - almost eight weeks! - will begin. There is always work for the German School to be done during the summer, but it is far calmer and slower than the end (and beginning) of the high school year.

A Year Ago I Thought I Was Done

It has been a year since Kaefer graduated, and it's only three more days until her last final and she will have finished her Freshman year at UC Davis. I still remember her graduation from high school so vividly. The excitement, the heat, the bittersweetness.

And I remember that I thought I was done with everything high school. Finally we would be able to take vacations in the spring or fall when schools all over the country would be in session. We could enjoy lower prices and lesser crowds. Ah, pure bliss.

Of course what followed didn't match that picture.

In the spring of 2016, while Kaefer was still a high school student, I volunteered at her school's library once a week. I enjoyed the work, the environment and the super cool textbook room that I re-organized at that time.

When in August - while we were in Hawai'i! - the school district started to look for a part time library technician for this high school library I didn't hesitate and applied for this position - and I got it. I started working in October, two days a week, which is just perfect since this gives me enough time preparing for my Saturday German classes and work for my Etsy shop. Only the last two weeks and the first two weeks of a school year do I work full time because there is so much to do.

We're pretty busy here. There are only two of us who work in the library and it can get rather loud when the students come in to hang out during break and lunch. Classes come here to study, the computer lab is also in the library and in high demand throughout the day. Most of the students are nice and quite funny teenagers.

While I do like the main library, my "true love" is the textbook room which is the part of the library with the books most often used. Here are all the big textbooks for science, math, history and foreign languages as well as all the reading material - novels, short stories, plays and poems - for the Language Arts. The textbook room is my realm, the part of the library I'm responsible for.

These heavy shelves are movable - just a short click on the handle and they move with a low mumbling sound up to the aisle where I need to get into to get the books a class or student needs. It's like magic and so far it hasn't ceased to fascinate me.

This is what it looks like when you stare through the shelves:

Well, and of course with this kind of work we're back to taking vacations during school breaks. I guess we have to wait to retirement for a chance to go on trips at other times. A big sigh in one regard, but I am also so happy to have found a job that I actually like.

The Graduate

Last Friday, on the hottest day in the week, our daughter graduated from High School. The commencement ceremony was at 5:30 in the afternoon. Thankfully for everybody who attended, especially the graduates who had to sit in the sun in their hot gowns with absolutely no shade (at least they had bottles of water under their seats), the ceremony only lasted for 75 minutes with short but very good speeches from the graduates, the principal and the superintendent.

The school symphonic and concert bands played "Pomp and Circumstance" when the graduates marched in on the field.

The Jazz Choir sang several times that evening - this was the last time for the graduates who were members of this excellent, award winning school choir.

Every graduate - more than 400, the biggest class the school had so far - had his or her special moment when s/he was called on the stage. It definitely was very special for the attending families.

I did feel proud when Kaefer's name was called and she went up on the stage. She had worked so hard over the past four years. Not only has she earned her high school diploma, but she graduated Summa Cum Laude, has become a California Federation Life Member and received the California State Seal of Biliteracy (these are all the "decorations" around her neck).

After the crossing of the tassel which represents the transition from being a student to being a graduate, the students - sorry, the graduates! - tossed their caps in the air.

That was the end of the official ceremony. After that it was photo time!!

The proud graduate and her friends (and her calculus teacher).

They weren't allowed to decorate their cap before the ceremony, but afterwards nothing could hold them back! They loved to show the college they would go to.

And her parents? They were proud as well - even though this milestone is bittersweet at the same time. However, there were no tears - but a lot of happy smiles.

A couple days before graduation, when the 'kids' brought home their cap and gown, Kaefer and I took the opportunity to take some cap and gown photos. 

 

But graduate or not - the goofiness is still there, the soul of a child wants to play or at least swing and fly through the air - soar, my graduate!!

I do love this girl so much!