It’s possible you encountered the news about the two awards I received in 2021-22. One was the 2020-21 Faculty of Social Sciences Teaching Excellence Award and the other was the Harry Hickman Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching and Educational Leadership. I am truly honoured by the awards, but honestly, the thing that was most meaningful and will uplift me for years to come, were the letters of support from students. It can be really hard to know what kind of an impact you have on others. Some of the stuff my students mentionned were things that happened in passing – conversations I barely remember. Other times, it was stuff that I knew had mattered to me in that moment, but I didn’t know how it was being received. So thank you to my students – the ones who wrote letter for me, but also the ones who send a quick email from time to time, or who just take a moment to say that they got something out of class that day. There are times when teaching feels impossibly hard, but you remind me why I do it and love it. It sounds corny, I know, but my students really are what keep me going in this job.