We’ve just begun a new year and I feel cautiously relieved. The pressure on my shoulders has lifted just a bit and I trust it will continue to lighten, more and more. As the days unfold before us, I feel hopeful with a certain melancholy desperation, that we will dig deep and make lasting changes. I’m tired and I know you are too. But we must keep moving forward.

During art school, I often felt a tug of sorrow in my heart because I knew the experience would come to an end. I wanted to get everything I could out of that time. I felt so inspired by the things that I saw that I walked around with a flutter in my chest.