The decades between tenure and retirement constitute the longest yet least understood period of a faculty member's career. Previous research depicts the midcareer as fraught with reduced job and career satisfaction, lowered productivity, and even stagnation. However, we suggest a reframing of this period. Drawing on data from surveys and interviews of post-tenure faculty at three liberal arts institutions, we reconceptualize the post-tenure as a period of dynamic interplay between an individual's agency and choices and an institution's opportunities and practices of recognition and rewards. We present a post-tenure model of four "pathways" to reflect how faculty vitality is constituted through institutional connection (belonging and fit) and career satisfaction (growth and recognition).