Twenty Years Plus

Today, after four hours of teaching, I will attend the University of Arizona Service Luncheon. One gets invited to this lunch on "milestone" years of service: ten, fifteen, twenty, and on. My milestone year is twenty. That is twenty full-time years here at the UA. I also have four years of service at ASU, three years in Tucson Unified School District, several years teaching in Mexico and Ecuador, nine years as a grad-student TA, a year teaching Adult Basic Education and ESL in the prison, and some odd tutoring gigs. All in all, I have been teaching for a living for thirty-six years. But today, I mark the last twenty here at the UA. I get to tuck them under my belt, file them away, take one last look around before I turn toward the door, the one that opens onto what happens next.