What am I excited about?

Now that we've been out of school for a week and I have had a chance to get some mental rest I am considering what exactly I am excited about. I had told my school friend Sabine who is still living in Germany where we grew up that in retirement, which is in three years, I want to move to Spain. She was surprised but then confessed she wants to open a bed and breakfast in Sweden where people can still visit with her even though she has a severely disabled husband. It's not really one of those fight or flight situations. I do want to move to Spain and open some kind of rest stop on the Camino de Santiago route. It sounds crazy, I know, but that's a long term plan. Now as far as immediate things I am excited about, there are a few things. We have puppies. They are one week old, too adorable. And there is hiking; we've explored a few new ones lately in the area. I had wanted to do a cross country road trip this summer. It's too bad I am not really that excited about spending hours and hours driving. I told my friend and hiking partner that just making it from here to Memphis would be torture. So, it's best to just think locally. What can I do to stay excited about my life? There is paddling with the kayak. Now that's a sport that I just discovered during the pandemic. It is hard to believe that the first time I stepped into a kayak was last September. When I am on the water, I totally forget the world and all of the problems with our country. I just paddle and focus on the water, looking at birds and bushes or trees. Then there is school. Last year was probably the most peaceful year for me in my 34 years of teaching. Weird, right? But it's true. The smaller class sizes made it so much easier to teach my lessons, to explore new things with my students, to just relax with them as they learned. I finished my third year teaching French and German. Hopefully, I will do that again next year. At least I was told it would be so. Last year, my name was on Spanish because the Spanish teacher had resigned and they could not find a replacement until almost the beginning of school. A close call you may say. Speaking of Spanish, I will attend the AATSP conference in July. Now that's something to get excited about. I just finished highlighting all of the sessions I am planning to attend there, something like 20 sessions, including a three-hour workshop on the last day on podcasting. I will be going home with more ideas than I can handle, but that's a good thing. It's going to be exciting! It will also get me ready to think "school" again. But that is a long time from now. So, before all of that, on to more hiking and kayaking. On to the outdoors and adventures unknown.