September Starts

Reflections on Hope, Hype, and Gratitude for the New Year

September always marks the start of a new year for me. No shade to January (my birth month), but September has always felt like the more natural starting point of the year.

Maybe it’s because the academic year starts in September. Maybe it’s because one of my favorite holidays, Rosh Hashanah (the celebration of a new year), is typically in September. And maybe it’s the new energy often unleashed in September as summer passes and we feel rested and recharged.. So it’s fitting that I’ve just launched How We Future this month, as a new project designed to lift up new voices, hear and tell new stories and look for new possibilities.

September makes fresh starts feel possible. The air shifts, routines reset, and suddenly we’re buying new notebooks as if that will make us more on top of things (just me?). But maybe that instinct isn’t so far off. Maybe September really is when we get to address and practice becoming who we want to be next.

As I think about what I want this new year to hold—for the How We Future initiative and also how I am personally moving with the world—a few things keep coming up. Call them my September intentions, or the things I’m carrying forward into whatever comes next.

A new year focused on HOPE

Hope can be hard to come by when things feel unmanageable or overwhelming. Hope isn’t a naive belief in things just getting better; Hope is a tool, an art, and a discipline. Wielded with legitimacy, it’s a strategic lever for what’s possible.

Hope is both a posture and a set of practices. It’s the decision to focus on what’s possible rather than getting stuck in what’s broken. It’s knowing that change happens slowly and then all at once, and that the work we do today (even when it feels invisible) is building something bigger.

Hope is not just wishful thinking, but grounded optimism fueled by the belief that every one of us is capable of great things and of making a difference. Hope is my stance toward the future, and my personal practice of resilience. I have seen what people can do when they believe in their own agency.

This September, I’m choosing to hope louder. To talk about solutions as much as problems. To spotlight people who are already creating the future we want to live in. Because hope, it turns out, is also contagious.

An intentional effort to HYPE

I’m a hype kind of person. If you know me, you know I get excited about people and ideas - authentically and passionately.

To me, hype is the power to tap into ourselves to feel genuinely excited, engaged, and energized by something, even when the world around us seems to be swirling in constant flux or worse.

Hype is people feeling excited about their work, their ideas, and their dreams. Hype is not about ignoring the difficult things in the world, but a personal response to finding celebration, joy and possibility in the personal, but meaningful moments. Passion can coexist with care and compassion. I think when we hold both we make everything a little more possible.

One of my teaching colleagues noted that since the pandemic, he’s felt like our students are facing a “crisis of enthusiasm.” They don’t as willing to outwardly express excitement and delight. Maybe they’re not fully showing up in class for fear of being judged. Or perhaps they’re undertrained at feeling emotions IRL because they’re expending and experiencing it in their digital presence. There’s just no comparison between the full body hype of a magical live jolt of joy, connection and vibrancy, and what you can get from an online feed - I don’t care how powerful those algorithms are.

I believe the world needs more people who are unafraid to get hyped about the things that matter to them. Because that energy is magnetic and then infectious. It draws people in, creates momentum, and reminds all of us that there are still things worth getting fired up about.

GRATITUDE as an abundant, renewable resource

Gratitude lifts all boats, helps people feel seen and heard, and requires no special access or status. It’s just a mindset of appreciation and abundance. For me it’s a perpetually renewable resource. Gratitude begets gratitude.

Gratitude is my mindfulness practice and my way of being in the world. I focus on noticing what’s working, who’s helping, and what small moments of beauty or connection or progress are happening all around us. I look for the kind of gratitude that energizes others and builds authentic human connections; the ones we need to move forward. And, combined with my belief in hope and hype, I never hesitate to share my gratitude with – and for – others. It’s how I lead hard projects and new initiatives, and how I aim to show up for my family, friends and colleagues. One of my favorite compliments a colleague shared with me was that I’m “gratitude-forward.”

I’ve found that gratitude is both a practice and a superpower. It always shifts or strengthens my perspective, opens up possibilities I couldn’t see before, and reminds me that even in difficult times, there are people and moments and small victories worth celebrating.

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So here’s to September beginnings.

To the opportunity to start fresh, try something new, or double down on what matters most. To hoping with intention, getting hyped about the big - and small - things, and practicing gratitude as an act of support or resistance.

What are you starting this September? What are you carrying forward and what does your personal gratitude look like? What opportunities lie within your reach?

The future is what we make it. I hope you’re hyped about it!