For Your "Amusement"

This photo might serve as proof of several things.  It might demonstrate an inverse relationship between one's age and one's enjoyment of back-crunching wild and wet rides (that's Mia in the middle, the youngest, who clearly is having the most unadulterated fun).  It might confirm that with age does not necessarily come wisdom.  It might show the lengths to which parents will go to make their kids happy.  It might simply show the word "amusement" to be an oversold and entirely relative term.

Whatever your interpretation, I'm guessing that the facial expression is worth the cost of admission to this entry.  With an act of will I will resist the limitless metaphors that could be drawn here to the first year of a presidency - the ups and downs, the unexpected events, the hanging on for dear life, the perils of sitting in front - an on and on.  We'll stick with the literal here - this is what I did on my summer vacation.

As we begin to gear up for a new academic year I find myself more and more missing the buzz of a busy campus and yearning for the return in numbers of our faculty and our students.  It has been a busy summer, but nothing ever feels quite right to me on a quiet campus.  I miss the hectic pace, the crowded parking lots and yes, even the countless meetings.  I hope that each of you who reads this has had a healthful and happy summer.  I look forward to diving into the coming academic year with you.  And I am grateful to have come out of that ride with my aging back intact.

See you soon on campus.