Philip, thank you for this thoughtful response. Shortly after I published this piece, I was offered another 3-year appointment. However, I turned it down. I’ve been an adjunct for 17 years, which actually served me well as I did other writing and performing projects while retaining good benefits from CUNY. But, due to the reasons I outlined in this piece, I was just too tired to climb this mountain for another three years, or even one. As a parting gift, I have been given the opportunity to coach the valedictorian and salutatorian speeches. That will be a nice capper to my adjunct career, to coach these exceptional, motivated students.