After 35 years in education, today is my first day of retirement. Joined by my sister in our family home in Mexico, I reflect on the transition from a life structured around work to day one of a new chapter filled with possibility. Season One Finale.

Sitting in an empty office, I reflect on what it feels like to clean out 35 years of memories and close a long career in education. From retirement celebrations to saying goodbye to keepsakes, this episode explores what we carry forward, what we let go of, and why an empty office can say so much about a life chapter coming to an end.

A trip to Best Buy shouldn’t have made me emotional. But somewhere between choosing a laptop and carrying it out of the store, retirement suddenly became real. In this episode, I reflect on why buying a simple silver laptop felt like so much more than a purchase—and what it revealed about endings, beginnings, and the life waiting on the other side of a 35-year career in education.

As retirement gets closer, I’m starting to notice the things that feel harder to leave than I expected. In this episode, I reflect on the rhythm of school life, being part of a community, and what it means to leave work that has shaped your identity for 35 years. A thoughtful look at what we carry with us when a long chapter begins to close.

To pickleball or not to pickleball? In this episode, I talk with two friends who have embraced pickleball in retirement. We laugh about how it started, but also explore something deeper — how having somewhere to go, people to see, and a routine can shape this next chapter of life.

In this episode, I reflect on why I decided to retire after 35 years in education. This wasn’t a sudden decision, but something I had been thinking about for years. As I approach retirement, I share what this work has meant to me, along with what I’m noticing — from research and from others — about what makes this transition meaningful and what it might mean to build a life in this next chapter.

In this episode, I sit down with my daughter, a teacher at the beginning of her career, while I retire after 35 years in education. We talk about what teaching looks like from two different stages of life, what this work has meant to us, and what we are both learning about work, identity and life across generations.

In this first episode, recorded three months before retirement, I talk about what it feels like to be at the end of a long career and at the beginning of a new chapter. This podcast will follow the transition into retirement, the last day of work, and the first year of building a new life after a long career.

After 35 years in education, I’m preparing to retire. Notes from Retirement is a podcast about the transition into retirement — the last months of work, the final day, and the first year of building a new life and a new rhythm after a long career.