Retiring Today

Today is my last day as an employee at the National College of Ireland - I am officially retiring! I have been planning this ever since my wife Roma retired just over two years ago. It is early retirement (I am 61 years of age), but I have long desired to go early. My timing in the middle of lockdown during a Pandemic is of course perfect, but nevertheless I decided to go ahead. Last week, while visiting the College for the first time since early March, I cleared out my office. I decided to be tough and only take home what I really wanted. There was lots of paper for shredding, but I was also surprised to generate half a bag of rubbish. I decided to keep just a few books and leave the rest. I thought it might be a bit emotional doing this task, but I found it easy to do. I have fond memories of my office - I was one of the lucky ones in NCI to have an office to myself. I will very much miss students and colleagues dropping by for a chat.

Emptying my office.

Goodbye to Room 3.21 and NCI!

While visiting the College I met with a colleague (HGV), who posted a photo (with my agreement) on LinkedIn, not thinking it would attract much attention.  I was overwhelmed with the response! At the time of writing there are 425 Reactions and over 100 Comments. I got messages of good wishes from current and former colleagues, and loads from former students. Messages from former students who have found success are most satisfying - it is always great to hear from them.

So it is "Goodbye" to the National College of Ireland after 18 years - I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. Over the next few weeks I will reflect in this blog about my 31 years as an educator.

I'm off!