2016 – a momentous year for almost everyone I know. A year of retirements and new jobs. Of births and deaths. Of great expectations and dashed realizations. Of achievable dreams and ever-present nightmares. Of smiling surprises and grimacing shockers.  A continual yo-yo year with nary a pause or rest. Exhausting. Fatiguing. Enervating. 2016 seemed to go on forever.

Looking forward – as that is what hope is all about – I am choosing to bring along the positives and leaving the negatives behind – a 12-month detritus heap.

I begin 2017 in a different place, with a new job, a new house, and new opportunities. My forevers include family here and in other locales, friends separated by geography, but close in a virtual sense, colleagues always ready to lend an ear or hand, two greyt hounds, at least one well-functioning knee, and an incurable, I think, optimism, although it did suffer pummelling in 2016. Already this sounds like quite a good foundation.

As I write, I am looking out the back window of my house on an expansive yard covered in white with a few green paths. White being the color of snow might be a clue that I have journeyed northward from Texas. Home is now in Beloit, Wisconsin, the location of Beloit College, where I am the new CIO. And those green paths through the snow – that is where Paul made walkways with a brand new snow blower. Yes, it is obvious to most that we are the new snow-ignorant arrivals – the ones who not only clear the driveway, but the backyard as well.

Across my years and the US, I have lived in the south, southwest, northeast, and west. This is my first time in the midwest. I originally thought it would be my first time to live in a state without a coastline, but then I expanded my definition of water bodies to include the Great Lakes. My pattern is thus secured.  Beloit College is a wonderful liberal arts institution. I am quite sure that I have never ever felt as warmly welcomed at any place I have worked. And warm is an important word in all of its meanings. After surviving earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes, I can now add polar vortex (and it really did get to -14) to my collection of nature’s calamities.

So in all, I’m excited and eager for the next 365. My positive foundation is in place. And so much novelty awaits – opportunities to get to know and work with my Beloit colleagues, to explore a part of the country I know little about, to enjoy 4 seasons (with appropriate clothing), to hear local expressions (bubbler?), to taste unusual foods (cheese curds?), to drink different beers (Two Women),  to drive on snow, and to do/learn/experience whatever else awaits me.  

I hope that each of you finds your own positive vector through 2017. Take care and may the force be within you.