STRETCHING MY DOLLARS

I retired from the University of New Hampshire the day after I celebrated my 60th birthday. My plan was to write full time - a dream I'd had for decades. Not being a detail person, I assumed my income would stretch to meet my needs except I forgot the importance of health insurance and therein was a huge problem. It quickly became apparent I needed to work at least part-time until Medicare kicked in five years hence. So I hired back on at the university as a "temp". I knew the automated financial system backwards and forwards because I'd been using it before retirement. It turned out I was a valuable asset and was paid top dollar to step into a variety of campus departments to help out during maternity leaves and other short term absences.

Then came the day I was assigned to ROTC Administration. This is an adjunct department for student reserve officer training. Lots of students - male and female - use ROTC as a way to finance their college education and pay the government back by serving in the Reserves - at UNH this could be the Army or Air Force Reserves.

The colonel in charge of the Army ROTC, to whom I reported, was a stickler: there was the Army way and then there was the Army way. Each time he approached my desk I felt the urge to jump from my chair and snap off a salute. Where was the informality of academe I had come to cherish?

Fortunately the woman I was subbing for had her baby sooner than expected and I was off the hook. At a farewell breakfast given for me, I was presented with a hooded sweatshirt with A-R-M-Y emblazoned across the front. I have cherished that jacket for years - it's reminder of my greatest battle.

Is that entirely true, I wonder? I've certainly had some major skirmishes. Some were to do with sticking up for my rights as part of a same-sex couple and the emotional turmoil that used to rage inside of me when people would say, "I don't want any of those dirty people coming into our church."
What were they thinking? These were battle wounds that will be with me always.

The most important result of those times is that I have learned to hold my head high, live my life openly and honestly, thank God for all his many blessings and respect and love the domestic partnership I have with Kay.