Today is the first day of school in the school district my kids will someday attend. I used to teach at the nearest high school by my house. As I have driven by this week and seen all the other teachers' cars parked outside the school, I have pondered being replaceable.
When you finish a phase in your life, do you ever wonder how life there will ever go on without you? I remember when I graduated from high school thinking that it was so weird that my teachers would continue to teach the next year without me or my friends there. Choir performances and competitions would go on without me. School dances would continue to be a busy social event, even though I wasn't there.
The same feelings come to me as I have moved a couple of times in my married life. My landlords easily found new tenants, and the bishops of our former wards found new people to fulfill our church callings. Life somehow goes on without me there.
I loved the years I spent teaching, but now I get sort of sad when I think that students come and go every year, and my former coworkers keep right on teaching year after year without sparing a thought for me. (Well, I still keep in touch with a couple of coworkers, and they claim to miss me sometimes. Ha ha.) It is sad to me that I was replaced so easily.
All of this makes me appreciate the roles in my life where I am NOT replaceable: my roles as wife, mother, sister, daughter, and friend.
5 comments:
You are irreplaceable to me! Will you still be my sister if I talk like this? "Wtnnsoi sncti sconw."
kind of a bittersweet post, eh? I especially like the last line. it's nice to be important in someone's life
You never were a good one for change :) But we can learn something from each phase of our lives, and hopefully we've touched someone else too along the way. You've touched me...even long distance!
Oh. I love this post! I so know what you mean about being replaceable. I went back to my old work to see people. It was quite a slap in the face to discover that my girlfriends were still going to lunch everyday, my buildings that I managed had not fallen down but actually improved, and my employees had a new boss who is more qualified and probably more competent at my job than I ever dreamed of being. How sad that I actually thought I was missed. But like you said, no one can ever take the place of Evan's mom, the best role I have ever had in my life!
I feel like you do, Jen. That's one of the reasons why I have come to treasure family above all else. For me, even most of my friendships dim and fade with time. It seems like only family stays strong despite inconvenient circumstances, whereas almost everything else just keeps flowing on with or without you. In family, you are always relevant.
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