 Good morning. It is late September, a beautiful fall day, and it is the first day of school. This is one of my favorite days of the year because I love the energy that the first day of something brings. While my relationship with the university has changed a lot over the past 17 years, that sense of like excitement and aspiration and possibility that the beginning of each new year brings is electrifying. I love seeing students walk around with their campus maps trying to figure out where their next class is and that moment when they realize that they only have seven minutes to get to their next class and it's three quarters of a mile away. They start hustling because the university is such a big place both literally and metaphorically. One time in college I was telling my dad that the university had like tons of construction going on and he said something that at the time I thought was a throwaway comment but I think is absolutely right. He said all universities are always under construction and I don't know why that stuck with me but I've been thinking about it a lot the last couple weeks. First there is a new building being constructed again right next to the physics building but this like metaphorical sense that the university is constantly being built and constantly changing. I think is also true. In fact I think it has to be true, it has to be fundamental. Our sense of learning and teaching and knowledge has to constantly be growing. We are teaching people both specific knowledge say physics or astronomy and general skills like critical thinking and that means the people who attend our university are constantly being built and growing and achieving and going out into the world. Researchers and scientists and professors our entire study of our field is constantly growing is constantly being built. I've been thinking about this especially for myself since coming back from parent leave I have had this surprisingly good feeling about my job and that seems kind of strange to say that I feel surprisingly positive about my job but I was feeling a lot of burnout leading up into my paternity leave. Over the last couple months I've started several new student projects and my mentorship and involvement with some of my students has grown and that's giving me a lot of personal energy. It's hard to explain but it feels like something new has begun. It feels like a new chapter in my career and in my ambitions and my goals. Probably part of it is because I am staring down the road of my own career trajectory and wondering what my next or what my stable job will be and trying to come up with creative and maybe ambitious ideas but regardless it's been an incredibly positive few weeks and that's why I haven't been making any videos. My days have been full trying to work really hard build something new and trying to grow. I hope this positive feeling this feeling of beginning something lasts a little longer because I'm excited to see where it goes welcome back to school.