Often, newsletter content in the new-ish part of the year focuses on resolutions, intentions, and building healthier, more sustainable habits. In my office – and frankly, in life – these are conversations that can happen year round as we naturally go through seasons of success or challenge. We are always growing, changing, refining, and the way that we reflect on progress and continue to iterate and adjust can greatly impact our well-being and our resilience. 

This academic year, I have centered the work of the Well-being and Academic Success office to align with the UW’s use of a holistic and interconnected model of well-being, most often presented through a Wellness Wheel and our larger well-being network. This work is also accessible at any point, to any individual, and for each of us to make our own meanings from it. As I think about my own well-being and personal work in this area, I continue to come back to gratitude. Gratitude is a quality, emotion, state of being, but more importantly, it is a practice. 

For me, a gratitude practice allows for connections to and intersections across all facets of the wellness wheel; it allows me to tap into something larger than myself, gives me hope in a complicated moment in time, and grounds me in connection to others. As we settle into 2026, I've been reflecting on a profound sense of gratitude for this community and what it means to accompany others. In the interest of modeling practice, I am sharing my gratitude letter below… 

To our students, I am grateful for the opportunity to accompany you on your journey with the RC. Here's my gratitude letter to you, mapped to the wellness wheel just for fun. 

Thank you for popping into my office to share tid-bits from your lives, for baking with me in the kitchen, for celebrating successes, and seeking support for challenges. I am truly honored to get to accompany you on your journeys and I miss your banter when I work from home. (Relational)

I am grateful for the opportunities to learn alongside you – you have challenged me to rethink rigor, get curious about growth mindset, and talk back to imposter syndrome. Remember, you are not here by accident, you deserve to be here. (Developmental)

I have enjoyed getting to know the larger UW community with you in mind. Thank you for trusting me to refer you beyond the walls of my office to UWCC, to Husky Health, ASP, DRS, and beyond. I truly enjoy linking you to the resources you need when you need them. (Resources)

Thank you for moving with me. Together we have gone on urban hikes, tossed balls and frisbees across Sylvan Grove, planked for an exceptionally long time, won and lost badminton championships, celebrated gutter balls and strikes, enjoyed the only swing on campus, and so much more. Finding joy in movement, in play, and in taking care of ourselves has been so much fun! (Physical)

I don’t know all of what you are holding at any given moment, but I am inspired by your grit and resilience. I have seen many of you grow in profound ways as you have sought to better understand your well-being, your mental health, and how you learn best. I have seen you build coping skills, navigate tough situations, and ask for help – you’ve got this. (Emotional)

You are leaders, friends, colleagues, and collaborators. I have seen you approach your academic and professional work with care, curiosity, drive, determination, and perseverance. You are also learning to set boundaries, and to take care of yourself as you seek to calibrate your initial relationship with work life balance – thanks for heeding my reminders to rest (even when you don’t want to listen). (Work) 

I have so much gratitude for the perspectives, beliefs, and experiences you have shared with me; I have learned more from you than I think I can adequately express here. I have particularly enjoyed our shared experiences of awe on our incredibly beautiful campus; especially the unexpected “take your breath away” moments when the mountain is out on Rainier Vista. (Spiritual) 

I am grateful for the collective sense of ownership you have for the RC – the kitchen, the lounge, the TS classroom – thanks for putting your compost in the right bin, for doing your dishes, and for turning down the volume when conversations get too big for the space. I appreciate the ways you think about belonging, friendship, and care for this community. (Environmental)

You are why I do this work; thank you for letting me be a part of your journey. 

P.S. If you’d like to start your own gratitude journey, here are a few ways you might explore this practice on your own. Start a gratitude practice that works for you: Greater Good In Action has synthesized sixteen research-based gratitude practices into a menu of ideas with simple instructions and the rationale for “why it works.”