Passion, motivation and planning...these are the attributes that made this picture possible. In 1998 my husband, Scott decided to go to France to see some of the Tour de France. We raced bikes before we started a family, so cycling has been in our blood for a long time. We've always thought of the Tour as the pinnacle of bike racing. After seeing 10 days of the Tour in '98, Scott began following the entire Tour in 2001, and continued in 2003 and 2004. Along the way he had the idea of leading bicycle tour groups to follow the Tour. In 2006 we launched our summer business and began taking customers to see the Tour. So, what does this have to do with Gifted Education? So often I see students who have, for one reason or another, lost interest in school. As educators, I believe we often forget that we all, students, teachers, regular folk, need to feel passion in order to spark motivation and planning. That's not to say that we should only do the things we like. Sometimes we need to create motivation to plan and achieve intermediate goals that may not be so interesting or connected to our passion. My husband's passion for bike racing and the Tour de France has led him to first dreaming (creating the motivation), then implementing (planning) for a way to continue seeing the Tour year after year. What are you passionate about? What motivates you? How do you create motivation when a task is uninteresting or unpleasant? How do you make plans? These are all questions I hope you ponder as we walk through this school year.