The two notebook pages below capture the miracle of the human brain, and the power of dedicated, effortful learning. During some recent housecleaning, I found the first one, dating from the days I came home from the hospital after a heart transplant and surgery-induced stroke. I had lost the ability to write and speak. These were some of my first efforts to form letters again. That was three and a half years ago. As my body and brain healed, and the words came back, I decided to rekindle my love of languages, and began re-learning ancient Greek (which I had studied in high school and college). Every morning this summer I have been getting up early, making a cup of tea, and studying Greek for thirty minutes. I review vocabulary, read my textbook, translate practice sentences, and write out verb conjugations and noun declensions to affix them in my memory. You see a recent effort at this on the notebook page on the right. Repetitive work sometimes, yes, but I see its unquestionable results when I am faced with translating an unfamiliar sentence. Let me never forget what gifts learning--even when it has been difficult, monotonous, and repetitive--has brought me, and continues to bring me at the start of every day. In the coming academic year, what are the challenging tasks that will motivate and guide us--and our students--from wherever we are now to whatever we hope to achieve? #learning #teaching #joy