Retirement · The retiree · Short · about a minute and a half
Short Retirement Speech From the Retiree (About 2 Minutes)
A branch manager giving his own short speech at an after-hours send-off in the library's reading room; he wanted to thank the staff and the regulars and keep it brief.
Given by Babajide, retiring as branch manager of the public library. 199 words. The names are made up.
The toast
Thank you. I promised Win I'd keep this brief, and I've spent twenty-four years asking people to lower their voices in this room, so I'll go easy on you.
I came to this library as a part-time shelver. I'm leaving as the branch manager, and I'll be honest, shelving was the better job. You push a cart, you put every book exactly where it goes, and at the end of the day the whole building makes sense. I have spent the last few years in meetings that did not end that way.
Win, thank you for running the children's room like it was the most important room in the building, which it is. To the circulation desk, who handle the overdue notices and the tears with the same calm face. To the pages, who do the job I loved best. And to the regulars, the ones who come in every morning for the papers and know all our names. You're the reason we unlock the doors.
I'm going to read for a while now. Out loud, in my own house, as loud as I want.
Everybody, glasses up. To the library, and to every book back where it goes.
Why it works: One image, the shelving cart, carries the whole speech and comes back in the toast. Each group gets one detail, the one named colleague gets a reason, and there's a single small joke about finally being loud.
Make it yours
Borrow the shape, not the lines. Put your own people, your own year and your own detail in each spot, or answer a few questions and get a first draft built from them.