25 Amazing Daughters and Recharging Batteries

     I am blessed in many ways.  One is my current "job" as a mentor/coach for beginning teachers in a school system.  Each week during the school year, I have the opportunity to visit with and observe beginning teachers who are in their first, second or third year of teaching. They become my "daughters".  The pay is acceptable, the hours are flexible, and usually, the drama is minimal.  Just the right second career for a former classroom teacher!  After 28 years in the classroom, it was difficult to "abandon ship" but mentoring helps me reconnect with a very familiar setting and lots of wonderful people who believe as I do, that there is no higher calling than that of a teacher.  These young women are amazing.  They face challenges and obstacles with persistence, resilience, and compassion.  Their energy and enthusiasm is contagious.  My role is to listen, to advise, and to encourage.  As I close out this school year, I am already excited about the next one.  What a great way to recycle and repurpose a retired teacher!  So how about you, what or who recharges your batteries? Do you have a second career that links to your first one?  This is one way I've enriched my life after 55!