Good morning, readers! This post as been a very long time coming–I’ve actually been trying to do this for the past three years, so I guess the third time is the charm.
As of May 15, 2020, after 19 years, I retired from full-time teaching at Hampton University!
I have been working there as a professor of theatre since 2001, teaching theatre classes, public speaking, humanities and directing show each year. It has been a wonderful life, but finally I arrived at the conclusion that it was time to shift my focus and pursue my other career as a writer of historical romance full time.
I look back on my time as a professor/director at Hampton with great fondness, remembering some of my favorite shows I directed there: The Taming of the Shrew, A Streetcar Named Desire, Momentum, Macbeth, Dearly Departed, Romeo & Juliet, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
And I look forward to a future in which my creativity will continue to expand with my writing and perhaps even a few forays back into theatre on some levels. I view retirement not as a time to sit back and watch the world go by, but rather as an exciting time to explore all the creative venues available to me. I hope to continue to hone my writing skills and produce romance after romance.
As long as readers enjoy my works, I’ll continue to write them.
So perhaps it’s not retirement so much as trading one passion for another. And I believe passion is timeless…
Jenna Jaxon Romance--because passion is timeless. 
Happy retirement, Jenna. May it be long, happy, and prosperous.
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Thank you so much, Ed! Your wishes have a Vulcan ring to them–making them even more treasured. 🙂
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Happy Retirement. Enjoy and make sure you do something you have always wanted to do.
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Thank you, Gina! I have wanted to write full time for years, so I will be doing that, plus I’ll start to work on my “bucket list” as well, so lots of things I always wanted to do. 🙂
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Yay! I’m glad you finally did it! “…I retired from full time teaching….” does this mean you’re going to adjunct? Then that’s still work preparing for class when you could be writing.
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Thank you, Sandy! Yes, I’m hoping to adjunct, just to help fill the coffers a little more, but the classes I’d be teaching are ones I’ve taught for years, so all my lesson plans are ready to go. A little time lost, true, but still lots of time to write. 🙂
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Congratulations. Wishing you a world of success in your second career.
Marion
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Thank you so much, Marion! 🙂
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Happy retirement! (I emailed you a card weeks ago.) i have no doubt that you’ll make the most out of your second career as a full-time writer. 🙂
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Thank you so much, Trish! After complaining for years about not having time to write, I’d better make the most of it now! LOL Once I get the hang of having time and organizing it, I’m sure I’ll be able to go gangbusters at the keyboard. 🙂
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