Time for change, after 36 years of it

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Green Island School deputy principal Joy Harahap makes the most of her last days of teaching at the school before she retires at the end of this week. Photo by Linda Robertson.

Green Island School deputy principal Joy Harahap may have been teaching at the 156-year-old school for 26 years, but it should come as no surprise the time has whizzed by for her.

"Although the surroundings are the same, no day is the same.

"That's the nature of teaching," she said.

Mrs Harahap's 36-year teaching career began at Bluff School in 1973 and will end this week, when she retires from Green Island School.

She recalled her first day at the school.

Her husband, Siddik Harahap, had died suddenly while they were living in Auckland, and she had moved to Dunedin to be nearer family.

"It felt like home; it was the right place for me.

"But I had no intention of staying here for 26 years."

"It's funny how life has its twists and turns.

"It was a traumatic time, but it gave me an opportunity to further my career."

It was not long before Mrs Harahap was promoted to deputy principal and enveloped by the local community, which became her "extended family".

While the 60-year-old said she would miss her "second home and family", she was looking forward to moving into a new phase of her life.

She planned to move a 1911 cottage from Waimate to her sister's farm in Enfield, North Otago, where she will spend her retirement years.

When asked if it would be easy to give up teaching so easily, she said no, and did not discount a return to the profession, if only on a part-time basis.

- john.lewis@odt.co.nz [2]