One of the best things about retirement: Not having to go out on cold snowy days

Sometimes you don’t realize how much you hated something until you no longer have to do it.

That’s how I feel about trudging to work in ice and snow. And give the amount of snow in Philly this year, I am thanking my lucky stars I didn’t decide to work for one more year.

Granted in blizzard conditions, the College would be closed. The real problem came when the storm was over, the roads were partially cleared, school was open, but it was seriously hard to get to work.

Buried deep within me I must have a little bit of the Catholic school girl striving for perfect attendance. In 35 years of teaching I never took a sick day and missed only one day because of snow when, despite my husband’s Herculean efforts, we could not get our car out of the driveway and the R7 train was not running. If it was at all possible, I managed to get to my classes.

I wasn’t conscientious about every aspect of the job. Towards the end I stopped going to department meetings and sometimes didn’t return student papers as quickly as I should have, but I was always super conscientious about showing up. I really identified with what one of my colleagues wrote on Facebook last week:

Faculty who blew off class today when students trudged all the way to school simply suck.

My sentiments exactly.

So given my compulsion to get to work no matter what, it has been such a relief to no longer have to make that effort.