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The Retirement Newsletter: Is this the start of my last full academic year?
Welcome
Welcome to issue -72, where I contemplate the start of my last full academic year.
Why would my ‘last full academic year’ be such a big deal?
Read on to find out.
Planning
If all goes to plan, I have 72 weeks left until I retire. (Now you know, if you didn’t already, why this issue is -72 — I am counting the weeks until I retire). So that means I am entering my last full academic year, and for me, that is a big deal.
The Academic Year
I have very few memories that I can say come from my pre-school days. I can remember going to nursery school, and I can remember starting at infants’ school.
Infants’ school puts you on track to schooling until you are 18, and then it is university, still with time organised around the school year.
And I have never left the university system. I did my PhD; I worked in university labs and became a lecturer. Things were all still based around the academic (school) year. Even when I was post-docing and not working with students, things still…
