It’s My Life

Song by Bon Jovi ≤ 2000

Partial Chorus Lyrics

It’s my Life,

It’s now or never,

I ain’t gonna live forever,

I just wanna live while I’m alive…

It’s my Life

” My heart is like an open highway,

Like Frankie said, “I did it my way”

I just want to live while I’m alive,

It’s my life”

Sometimes in my life’s journey, I, like everyone, have faced many decisions, and as we all know, there are usually two possible outcomes we face after making them, either the decision was good, or it was not good. If it was good, it didn’t stop there, referring to a saying I shared with my kids, students, and athletes, “Good, Better, Best, never should you rest, until your good becomes better, and your better becomes best.” If our decision wasn’t good, we could (hopefully) use what we learned throughout our school years when studying the Scientific Method, if we didn’t arrive at our original hypothesis, we could change the conditions and retry the experiment.

I didn’t decide to become an educator until my second year of college. At the time I made that decision, the market for teachers was over-saturated. One statistic at the time I was a student teaching my senior year and beginning to type letters of interest and applications to schools for after graduation mailing, was that there were upwards of 200 applicants for each available teaching position in our area. Knowing this, I needed to decide how I was going to “promote” myself, if you will, so I began substitute teaching in most all Chautauqua County schools, and many in Cattaraugus County. I spent literally two full years subbing an average of more than 165 days per school year. I subbed in any situation that was offered, even in areas I wasn’t adept at, including Graphic Arts, Metal Shop, and Drivers’ Ed., (though they didn’t let me take kids out in cars and drive the streets of wherever I was subbing that day.)

After two years, I was offered a one semester Maternity Leave position in Jamestown, which turned into two, and then a position became available in the school where I long termed. It was offered to me, and my 31 years of service in the Jamestown School District began. I loved what I did those 31 years, the two years prior, and these 18 and counting post-retirement years.

Circa 2005, New York state initiated an option for teachers who’d reached the age of 55, with 30 or more years in a classroom to retire and begin collecting their retirement pension at the beginning of the next school year. I was 52 then, I had 28 years of service in teaching, so, doing the math, I’d be able to take advantage of this option, if I chose to, in three more years.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love(d) being a teacher. Being no other job was/is possible without teachers, I felt I had the greatest job/profession/career in the world, and I felt I might want to teach for 50 years. I always told myself to make sure I made any decision to step down at anything while still loving what I did, and not wait until, or if, I wasn’t enjoying it anymore and just wanted out asap. (BTW, not enjoying it, or wanting out for any negative reason never happened.)

Our son, Jon, started college in the fall of 2007. He tried out and made the Medaille College (Buffalo) baseball team. Having missed maybe only about a half dozen to a dozen of his athletic contests (baseball, soccer, basketball) from ages 5 until 18, I knew I wanted to be there as much as possible in his last four years of sports. As it was, I still couldn’t retire because I was only 54, but I had the 30 years of service (which after I did retire, I was able to add another year based on summers running tutoring programs for the Chautauqua County Summer Youth Employment Program, and working with Kids’ Summer Camps at JCC.) giving me a total of 32 years of service, but I still needed to turn 55, so I began the school year in September 2007, and in December, I submitted a letter of intent to retire from the JPS in June 2008. Regarding Jon and baseball, as a freshman, playing time would be limited, so in 2007, Sally and I attended all the weekend games, and games played during my Spring Break, to support the Mavericks his freshman year.

In 2009, I returned to subbing, Sally continued working, but I made my initial retirement mission to get to most (and probably attended about 95%) of the 2009-11 games, including spring trips to Florida, and Medaille games played in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Maryland. On weekdays, often, I was the only parent at away games, as most parents still worked, but I’d get up, load the cooler with sandwiches and granola bars – Sally and I fed the team sandwiches (players chose bologna and cheese but we made some PB&Js for those who wanted those) and granola bars for in-between games of doubleheaders played. On weekends we brought a small grill and did hot dogs and left for Buffalo, or wherever they played that day. Our car was always loaded with any/every kind of weather gear, our wind tent, canopy, chairs, blankets, etc., so all I had to do was throw the food in the car and take off. I always kept score at games, whether Jon played or not, so my scorebook and a half dozen freshly sharpened pencils were always in the car too.

Each player on Medaille’s team had a nickname, given to freshmen by seniors. Jon’s monicker was Lombo. Sally and I were honored by the team with the nicknames, Mama Lombo and Papa Lombo. (I still use Papa Lombo in text/email signatures attached to communications sent from my devices.)

I decided to retire early, so I could do what I have done these 18 retired years. When Jon was done playing, I went back into coaching (softball) at Falconer Central School and officiating baseball, and I kept subbing too. During this time, I published two books, a Coach’s Guide, and began a new career/hobby as a columnist in this periodical. We’ve traveled, to see family, attended concerts/shows, many ballgames in Cleveland, and just got away from time to time. We weren’t/aren’t financially wealthy. I could’ve stayed and made more money, but we’ve been able to pay our bills, put food on our table, and maintain our savings, and with some belt-tightening when needed, we’ve enjoyed each other and people/things that can’t be measured by money. It was time for life on our terms. We seized our opportunities, with no regrets.

One of the things often posted on Facebook recently appeared on my page, which read, “Retirement age is 67. Life expectancy is 76. Work for 50 years to maybe enjoy nine? Start enjoying life now! No one is guaranteed.” Sadly, I’ve seen, and known, many people who worked 30, 40, or 50 years, and shortly after retiring they passed away. (Some don’t/didn’t even make it to retirement.) My decisions to teach, coach, officiate, write, retire, be loyal to my sports’ teams, and live how I lived, proved to be the best (after marrying Sally and having kids) decisions I’ve made, with no regrets, or looking back. “Like Frankie said, I did it my way,” in my jobs, my faith, my family, my retirement, and my conviction, and though I could done them a little quieter, and a little classier like “Frankie,” I’m sure glad I, at least, heeded Frank’s and JBV’s words.