As the end of year approaches (and, for many of us, a holiday season), it’s not unusual for our thoughts and emotions to turn toward others as we take an inventory of what’s important in our lives.
End-of-year transitions are natural times for such reflections – and they give us the opportunity to realize and focus on how we're surrounded by people and places that matter.
Recently, for example, I've found myself taking time to think about all the things for which I’m grateful.
Top of my list is my husband, Jim, who always has been one of my strongest supporters – as well as a fantastic spouse, wonderful companion and great geoscientist (who, incidentally I met at an AAPG convention 35 years ago). I also am very fortunate to have three very loving and interesting children and two charming granddaughters.
Also on that list, I have some wonderful friends, many of whom I connected with via being active in AAPG as well as other professional associations.
In fact, I find that I'm grateful to AAPG for so many reasons; for the friendships, the mentoring, the shared learning experiences, the good times (and yes, perhaps even my husband).
I'm also grateful that we have so many talented and hard-working members and others who volunteer their talents, energies and their valuable time to advancing the science, the profession and the Association.
And, I'm very grateful for our talented, personable, hard-working AAPG staff. I’ve always had admiration for our staff, but over the past year I’ve come to more deeply appreciate all they do for the Association and its members.
It’s appropriate, then, in this season of remembering to recognize and celebrate those people who are this year’s “Best of the Best” – the amazing people who have been named the winners of AAPG honors and awards.
This year’s award winners are formally announced in this [PFItemLinkShortcode|id:13668|type:standard|anchorText:EXPLORER|cssClass:asshref|title:EXPLORER|PFItemLinkShortcode], and all will receive their awards and public recognition during the opening session at the AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, which will be held May 31-June 1 in Denver.
Probably, there’s someone on this list you know, or perhaps you are familiar with his or her work. Many of them will be highlighted even more in a number of articles over the next few months. I encourage you to read these articles about our awardees (as well as all the rest of the great articles presented each month in the EXPLORER) and reach out and congratulate them.
To be clear, it wasn’t recognition that motivated these awardees to perform with excellence, it was passion – passion for the science, passion for learning, passion for making our profession and our world a better place.
Passion and a desire to do some good.
But recognizing their accomplishments and saying thank you is an easy, yet important, thing to do. So I say thank you to them, and thank you to all of you for your various contributions to AAPG and to our world.
And in this season of thinking about others, my wish for you is good health, great prospects and successful wells.
But mostly, may you all feel the passion.