By Jenna Jaxon

I already know the coming year will bring many changes for me because I’ve decided to retire from my full-time job as a university professor of theatre to pursue writing full time.

Last year was a very stressful one for me because basically I was working two full-time jobs at once. In addition to teaching a full load of classes, I also directed three theatrical productions, including a production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, which seemed to have a cast of thousands (actually 19 but felt like a lot more). While doing all this, I was also writing two full novels and a short story, editing two other novels, and doing promotions for I don’t know how many books.

The upshot of it was I was frazzled beyond belief by the time this past May rolled around. With my writing career beginning to take off in a big way, I made the decision that the 2018-2019 academic year would be my final one. I expect the whole year to be bittersweet, each class I teach being the “last one” of its kind, the final production possibly the last one I will ever direct.

And the lyrics of George Washington’s song “One Last Time” from the musical Hamilton, keep resonating in my mind:

One last time
Relax, have a drink with me
One last time
Let’s take a break tonight
And then we’ll teach them how to say goodbye
To say goodbye
You and I

If I say goodbye, the nation learns to move on
It outlives me when I’m gone
Like the scripture says:
“Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
And no one shall make them afraid.”
They’ll be safe in the nation we’ve made
I wanna sit under my own vine and fig tree
A moment alone in the shade
At home in this nation we’ve made
One last time

Next year will be hard in many ways because it’s always hard to say goodbye to something you’ve put a good portion of your life into. I’ve been at the school since 2001, hired five days before the world changed for good on 9/11. I’ve been happy there, hopefully changing the lives of my students for the better.

But now it’s time to move on.

To say goodbye.

One last time.