It’s finally May. I’ve always liked this month. When I was working at schools it meant that we could assign the youngsters fun projects to tie up the year. Mother’s Day presents would come after either Maypole dancing or Cinco de Mayo celebrations. Then, there were the band and chorus programs to celebrate the year’s work. At a couple of the schools we had theater arts teachers and May signaled their end of year productions. It was always a packed month that slid into Memorial Day and the end of year reports. Summer vacation was getting closer.
Now that I’m retired I don’t use the same things as earmarks of summer’s fast approach. We live very close to a private school’s small playground. This particular branch of the school has Kindergarten and First graders attending. At the beginning of the school year one can hear high-piped voices and random shrieks of “it’s mine” at 8:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., and 1:00p.m. They play a lot. Now, in May, I hear the voices, but not as high-piped, and the random shrieks of “go get it,” “run faster,” and “I won.” They’ve learned some games and worked out following some rules. How fast they grow.
May also means that college students are finishing their research papers and getting ready for exams. I tutor a college student who is doing just that. He has one more semester to go before graduation, so we’ve been talking about what he’ll be doing following that auspicious occasion. It’s a big time for me as well since I’ve worked with him since the summer between second and third grade. However, we don’t talk about that.
He has an intern job set up for the year after graduating. He wants to own a farm to table type of enterprise and work outdoors. I have to applaud his honoring his own wishes and setting up the intern position where he’ll learn how to manage the farm business, keep the various spread sheets, and sell his produce to restaurants and outdoor markets. We’ve talked throughout his junior year about a wide variety of careers, graduate school for this and that, but farming seems to be his thing at this time. We’ll see. After all of the papers, math problems, foreign languages, and complaining I suspect that I’ll miss it. 
Meanwhile, the month of May also means Charles’s coronation in England. How nice of them to have scheduled it for a Saturday and in the morning. There’s not much to watch on television early on a Saturday morning, so the coronation of Charles III will be interesting to see. I read that both Camilla and Charles are rehearsing the various steps and so on that each will have to take on their special day. I think that I’ll enjoy the theater of it all. I’m not necessarily a monarchist, but I’ll never get to ride in a coach or wear an ermine bordered red and purple silk floor length robe so watching someone else is great fun. Charles had once fancied himself a kind of farmer as well. I should tell my student.