Author’s note: The following column was published April 17, 2025, in my final print edition of The Pacer as its faculty adviser. This is being published online today because it is the last working day of my time as adviser.

I missed my final story deadline for The Pacer student newspaper, but it was for the best of reasons – I was a little distracted by the birth of my granddaughter.

How ironic and wonderful it is that Xailee’s birth and the last print issue of my time as The Pacer’s adviser occurred in the same week. Perhaps it was meant to be this way, highlighting how our seasons of life can change so quickly.

I began the transition to this season when I retired from my full-time faculty position at UT Martin on July 31, 2024, ending a 28-year teaching and advising career. I needed time to do more for my mom, who no longer drives but still lives at home. I have been a part-time staff member this academic year because I still had tasks to complete, a few more classes to teach and a student newspaper that I was absolutely unwilling to abandon until someone else was hired.

The Pacer is interwoven with many of my seasons of life. I began my journalism career as a staff writer and copy editor for this publication when I was in college. What I learned at UT Martin and The Pacer propelled me through graduate school as a teaching assistant and into the daily newspaper world as a copy editor, which I did for more than a decade.

When I hit the season of single parenting – of my son, Jesse, father of the new granddaughter! – and middle-aged career burnout, it was UT Martin and The Pacer that welcomed me home; gave me a chance to pursue a different kind of journalism career; and provided me the time and space to heal and then to grow and give back.

Many people during my nearly 45 total years in journalism – from the time I changed my college major through today – deserve my heartfelt thanks, but I don’t have enough room on this page to name them all.

So, I will try to keep it simple. The Pacer’s biggest social media fan and cheerleader also happens to be my husband and my rock, the Rev. Dr. George Pasley, minister of Trinity Presbyterian Church. I cannot imagine finishing this journey without him or my church family. I also cannot imagine how my story would have turned out without the encouragement, caring and unwavering support of my colleagues in Mass Media and Strategic Communication, past and present, as well as so many other truly phenomenal colleagues and friends across campus and in the community. You all have no idea how deeply you have enriched my life.

My own family members – blood kin and otherwise – also continue to sustain me in ways that cannot be counted. I could not have had the life and career I have had without them.

Most importantly, I owe the essence of who I have become to the hundreds of students who have wandered through my life during my career, especially Pacer staff. They taught me more than I ever taught them. They shaped my views on what a teacher should be, and they rightly gave me grief when I didn’t live up to their expectations or to my own. They pushed me, always, and they have given me moments of sorrow – but so many more moments of pure joy. They have kept me young at heart, even though I am now at, or approaching, the age of their grandparents.

I could tell numerous stories, but I won’t do that here. Instead, I will promise that those stories will be treasured in my mind and heart, layers of memories that I hope I never forget.

I’ve given way too much advice during the past nearly three decades, so I won’t do that here, either. Instead, I will say that every season of life has its challenges and blessings, and I have learned to count my blessings even when I could not overcome all the challenges as well as I would have liked.

I still have some tasks to complete and some more teaching and advising to do this fall, and, maybe, a little longer as a part-time employee. But the pull of family and true retirement is strong, so I know the end of my UT Martin path is drawing closer. I have no regrets in choosing this path, and I will be forever grateful for every person I met and opportunity I was given along the way.

Finally, to my current Pacer staff: You are the best. Do not forget that! Though bittersweet, I can move into my next season of life more easily because I am confident in how much more you can and will accomplish in the coming years. I am the past; you are the future. Embrace it with everything you have. I will always believe in you.

All my love, all my hope and all my thanks! ~ Ms. Tomi