I’m sitting in John Wayne Airport, waiting for my flight, reflecting on my first faculty summit and commencement ceremony with the University of Massachusetts Global.
And honestly?
My cup is full again.
Not performatively full. Not temporarily inspired. But genuinely, deeply refilled in a way I haven’t felt in a long time.
Why We Do This Work
Commencement ceremonies always do something to me emotionally.
No matter how many you attend, there is still something profoundly moving about watching students walk across that stage and receive the diploma that represents years of effort, sacrifice, resilience, and persistence.
Because behind every graduate is a story.
Some were supported every step of the way.
Others had to fight for every inch alone.
Some balanced careers, children, marriages, grief, financial hardship, self-doubt, or exhaustion while pursuing their education.
And yet there they are.
Smiling. Crying. Celebrating. Breathing in the reality that they made it.
The joy in those spaces is contagious. The energy is almost impossible not to absorb. It reminds you that education, at its best, is not transactional—it is transformational.
Finding Home Again
Beyond the success of our students, I find myself deeply grateful for this new chapter professionally.
Grateful for my role.
Grateful for my colleagues.
Grateful for this institution I am proud to now call home.
There’s a certain feeling you get when you realize you are somewhere aligned—somewhere your values, your experience, and your vision actually fit together instead of competing with one another.
I felt that this week.
And as I look at the work ahead, I know we are going to do meaningful things together. Not just operationally. Not just strategically. But humanly.
The future of higher education depends on institutions willing to care deeply about both rigor and connection. Both outcomes and people.
And for the first time in a while, I feel fully reconnected to that mission.
Remembering 2019
At one point during the summit, I found myself drifting into a moment of nostalgia.
I thought back to 2019. To walking into my first higher ed classroom, not as a student this time, but as a professor. To those early moments where teaching didn’t just feel like work—it felt like purpose.
And suddenly, I felt that old feeling again.
That feeling that maybe… just maybe… I can help make the world a little better through this work.
Not perfectly.
Not dramatically.
But meaningfully.
Through students.
Through leadership.
Through connection.
Through believing in people before they fully believe in themselves.
The Part of Me I Missed
What surprised me most this week was realizing how much I had missed this part of myself.
The hopeful part.
The mission-driven part.
The educator who believes learning can genuinely change trajectories.
Sometimes life, leadership, and responsibility can pull us so deeply into systems and operations that we forget the emotional core of why we started in the first place.
This week reminded me.
And sitting here now in the airport, watching people move in every direction toward their next destination, I feel something I haven’t felt in a while:
Alignment.
A sense that I am stepping back into the version of myself that feels the most true.
Leaving Rejuvenated
I arrived in California excited.
I’m leaving rejuvenated.
Reconnected to purpose.
Reconnected to the work.
Reconnected to the belief that education still matters deeply in this world.
And maybe most importantly, reconnected to the part of myself that still believes we can create spaces where people grow into fuller versions of themselves.
I’ve missed this.
And I’m grateful to have found it again.
— The Social Capitalist
