As I began teaching students, I came to realize that my work was to discover the rough gemstone within them, and to bring it out and polish it into a jewel together. For a long time, I showed them the gem, saying, "Look — this is what was inside you."

Now I turn that gaze inward, toward myself — to draw out, one by one, the things buried within me, to grind them down, and to carry them forward into work. As the chapters increase in number, I hope that my own rough stones will also become smooth and lustrous.

At the end of every semester, we cheered as we watched the students' rough stones turn into gems. I hope the same will happen for me now.