As a schoolteacher I was very fortunate to be able to retire after thirty years in the classroom. Since then, the rules have been changed in Ohio, and regardless of the number of years of service, you must teach until you reach the age of sixty. I know that doesn't sound very old, but I really cannot imagine being sixty years old and teaching six classes, sometimes with a total of 150 students. Unless you have taught, you cannot imagine how stressful teaching can be. There are those who say, "Yes, but you have the summers off." This would irk me, especially from a person who works a 9 to 5 job. They don't think about the hours spent in the evenings and on weekends grading papers and preparing lesson plans. Besides, many of those summers were spent taking post-graduate university classes. I had many very enjoyable years of teaching (and some that were less enjoyable). I do not regret having gone into teaching, but I am glad to have been able to retire years ago.
We have a decent pension (Ohio's teachers' retirement fund is one of the more solvent in the country), and, combined with my investments, I have been able to travel extensively.
Very soon I will reach the status of "senior citizen", and I now have my Medicare card to prove it! I hope that I still have quite a few years of travel in my future.
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