Tag Archives: celebrations

Celebration after celebration

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Last week I had a personally organized retirement event that I shared with a friend. Yesterday was a dinner for all district retirees. Tonight there’s a dinner for principal and vice principal retirees, and then Monday is a celebration organized by my staff. After this I have one more retirement on July first, organized by my wife for a handful of friends.

It feels like a lot right now. It also feels quite surreal. I’m not used to this much attention coming my way, and if I’m honest, it makes me feel a little uncomfortable. It’s funny, sometimes in a school it feels like anything and everything comes my way and that’s a kind of attention I handle with no problems. But the moment the attention is on me rather than towards me, I want to just avoid it altogether.

Still, I don’t want to come off as complaining, it has been wonderful to reminisce and celebrate with people who have lofted me up, supported, and collaborated with me over my career.…

Part 2

I didn’t get this completed this morning. It’s now 10:15pm and I just got home from the retirement. The speeches are usually a person talking about the retiree, followed by the retiree speaking. My buddy Dave and I took turns talking about each other. I’ll probably share more about this later but for now I’ll just say that this made it extra special. I’m lucky to be retiring at the same time with him and couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate tonight.

I started off the day thinking this all feels like ‘too much’, but I ended the night feeling like my gratitude cup is spilling over… and that’s a completely different and wonderful kind of ‘too much’.

The June rush

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I want to say that I’m not going to miss the June rush, but I will. I always chuckle a little when people who are not in education say things like, “You must be winding down to summer now.” It’s much more like ‘ramping up’ than ‘winding down’. There is so much going on in a school in June, and adding retirement events to this just makes it feel a little overwhelming.

Today is a crazy day for me. We have next year’s incoming students visiting for the day, followed by our final PAC meeting, followed by a district retirement dinner. From the moment I hit the gym at 6am until 8pm tonight I don’t have a moment to spare. That said, it should be a really fun day too.

That’s the thing about the June rush, it is simultaneously great and exhausting. It’s a month of dichotomies. It’s I time of event-after-event, but each one of those events is a bit of a celebration. There is excitement about graduation, and ending the year, and there is the sense that the pace is all too much. There is the excitement of changes to come, and the sense of sadness of things ending.

Here’s the thing about the June rush, it’s easy to get stuck in the busyness, in the rush and the planning of event after event, in the checking off the last time you have to do something, and in the melancholy of knowing things are coming to an end. Meanwhile, each event is a gift. Each event is an opportunity to spend time with students and colleagues, and to celebrate the year that was. Yes, June is really busy, but within that busyness is hidden many moments to appreciate.

In orbit around the sun

Yesterday was my sister’s anniversary, and that made me think about how many rituals and celebrations are based on one rotation of the earth around the sun: Birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, school years, mating seasons, and harvests… All these are based on our orbital geography around our galaxy’s star.

Earth orbits the Sun at an average distance of 149.60 million km (92.96 million mi),[1] and one complete orbit takes 365.256 days (1 sidereal year), during which time Earth has traveled 940 million km (584 million mi). ~ Wikipedia

We celebrate events based on yearly journeys of 940 million kilometres. That works out to over 2.5 million kilometres a day! Would this yearly trip have been as significant if the earth’s axis was not tilted, giving rise to the changing seasons?

Perhaps one of the most apparent factors contributing to Earth climate change is the angle at which the earth is tilted. This is the angle at which Earth’s axis of rotation is from the vertical, also known as Earth’s obliquity. Earth’s current tilt angle is approximately 23.5 degrees. The axial tilt angle affects climate largely by determining which parts of the earth get more sunlight during different stages of the year. This is the primary cause for the different seasons Earth experiences throughout the year, as well as the intensity of the seasons for higher latitudes. For example, in the Northern Hemisphere, if there were no axial tilt, i.e. Earth’s obliquity would be zero degrees, then there would be no change in the seasons from year to year. This would be because there would be no difference in the amount of solar irradiation received, year-round, anywhere on Earth. ~ Wikipedia

What would life be like if temperatures stayed relatively constant depending on your latitude? How important would birthdays be? Would our calendars be based on the moon? How important would the passing of a year be?

Enjoy your next orbit!