The school year has begun! “Welcome back to school!” can feel like a statement of excitement for some, for others it feels like a shouting out of anxiety and overwhelm. Beyond the usual checklists of supplies and classroom arrangements, there's a deeper question we must address: What do students need from us to do their best work, not just as learners but as human beings? How are whole human beings empowering their own learning as students? How can we be optimistic about going back to school without being toxically idealistic?

Everyone wants to say and act as if working in an arts organization with people you love is just easy, dreamy, and full of laughs all day, but the days are also just as long, hard, exhausting, and bring us to the edges of our human capacities. To quote joyUS justUS, “If we belong to each other, we participate in our creations: we are because you are, and since you are, definitely I am.”