Pulling a Pierre

This morning I realized I like waking up before dawn.  We are having a glorious fall season and the early mornings are splendid.  Cool, clear, still.  Just plain lovely.

I went for that auspicious walk this morning.  I made the decision.

Since 2005 I have been jumping from between the sheets, booting the PC, setting up the camera and microphone and presenting the washed face and cleaned teeth to the live class.  More than five thousand, nine hundred, and sixty six times is what my database reports as completed but since I didn't begin the log until 2007 and since I was much busier in the first 10 years than in the last 10 years, I am fairly certain that 10,000 is a safe estimate of the number of 50-minute English classes I have presented over the past, coming to on, twenty years. Often before six a.m.  I have been teaching on Asian time.

Usually, I would wake up prematurely and my first thought would be, "you have another twenty minutes", so I'd roll over and drink those minutes and dread the alarm in a semi-conscious state.  No more.  It is done.

Well except for the 43 left in the pipeline.

I have loved my students. I have 113.  I always met them one-on-one. Some are still with me since as early as 2007, others met with me for a few weeks to prepare for a university entrance exam or a job interview or an immigration procedure. Some came to improve conversation, others for editing support.  My learners were mostly professionals needing practice for presentations in an international forum. Many disciples crossed my screen: medical specialists, software engineers, business executives, legal experts.  I met a film writer, a farmer, a global fashion fabricator, a railway developer, and other teachers of English.  I have taught parents and then their children.  I have met extended families who have recommended my service to each other and become my friends.

It has been hard to build this good-bye phase because it is so pleasant to engage with people across oceans and across cultures.  I have truly benefited from this stage of my career but  have gradually diminished my services over the past few years.

I did not originally intend to be a teacher but it turns out, have been one for most of my working years.  Early Childhood Music, Tennis, Curling, Ballroom Dancing, Computer Support, Marketing and Advertising, Leisure, Yoga, and for the past two decades. English, for speakers of other languages. 

I am ready to dance to a different rhythm. I can work through the night and sleep through the day.  My schedule will become my own.  I have told myself that my teaching has not interfered with my other projects, but now I must set myself free to see.

October 12.  This is the day.

I thank myself for carrying this career along and honour myself for this release.