I made it through Christmas this year without getting sick again, so a good trend is underway. As 2017 comes to a close, it marks the end of my LX year, and my primary working life, but I hope also signals the start of new opportunities and a new era of living. Since I’ve pretty much had some sort of job or predefined structure to my life for the last half century, I have some anxiety as to what is coming, but I’m also excited about the freedom I’ll have to pursue new interests and live life in a new way. I just have to make sure I don’t let my sedentary tendencies and procrastination take over. I’ll miss the folks I work with, and that will probably be one of the hardest parts of this life change.
It’s hard to reflect on the last four decades since I was in college, and I won’t do it here. I never planned to be doing what I do where I do it, but I guess that’s a good thing that has kept life interesting. I never imagined I’d work for the same institution for more than three decades. In some areas I’ve excelled beyond my greatest expectations, and in other areas I have left areas of missed pursuits. The term at work is ‘work life balance,’ and I’ve not done a great job of balance. But as I often say, I’m not dead yet, so the future still holds the excitement of opportunities unexplored, and life changes yet to come.
This has been a pretty good year. I visited all the University programs all around the country that I help oversee, some multiple times, and I got to do some fun side trips too. I participated in significant hiring at work and have helped put in place what will hopefully be some of the next generation of scientific leadership there. I hit a major milestone in my Shakespeare pursuits, completing the canon. I also worked on upping my photography skills attending two very interesting workshops; an area I hope to pursue more fully in the next era.