Who will you show up for?

How do you feel going into September 2026?

It feels like just yesterday we were saying, “Happy New Year!” We were making plans, setting goals, choosing our word for the year, and telling ourselves, “This is going to be my year.”

And now, somehow, we are already standing at the doorway of the final quarter.

Where did the time go?

It seems like the year simply zooped by before I could blink.

In these first eight months, so much has changed. Some of us welcomed new beginnings. Some experienced unexpected endings. Some celebrated milestones, while others quietly navigated moments nobody else could see. We met new people, lost touch with some, changed jobs, started schools, moved homes, celebrated birthdays, and perhaps discovered new versions of ourselves along the way.

And now comes the quarter of the year that seems to fill our calendars before we even realize it.

September brings new routines. October brings fall gatherings and celebrations. November reminds us of gratitude and family. December arrives with holidays, traditions, parties, food and, hopefully, a little time to pause.

It is the season of gathering.

But before we rush into everything that is already waiting for us, I want to offer one simple invitation:

• Make your last quarter count – not by doing more, but by connecting more intentionally.
• Choose one person you have been meaning to call.
• Invite someone to your table.
• Thank someone who made a difference in your life.
• Show up for a community event you have never attended.
• Ask a neighbor how they are really doing.
• Sit beside someone who may be feeling unseen.

Because sometimes the most meaningful “good work” we can do is not measured by how much we accomplish. It is measured by how much belonging we help create.

We often enter the final months of the year thinking about what is left on our own checklist: the unfinished project, the unfulfilled goal, the places we haven’t visited, the things we haven’t purchased.

But what if we created a different kind of checklist?

Who needs to hear from me?
Who needs a seat at my table?
Whose story have I not heard?
Where can I show up?
What can I do to make someone feel that they belong?

Maybe that becomes our fourth-quarter goal.

Not perfection. Not productivity. Not another race against the clock.

Just presence.

The holidays have a way of reminding us that food tastes better when shared, celebrations feel richer when others are included, and traditions become more meaningful when stories travel from one generation to another.

So, as September begins, I am choosing to look at these final months not as the end of the year, but as one more opportunity to build community.

We may not be able to slow down the calendar.

But we can slow down enough to notice one another.

Before 2026 zoops away, let’s make one intentional choice: leave a little more kindness, connection and belonging wherever we go.

Because when the year ends, perhaps the best question won’t be, “How much did I get done?” It will be, “Whose life was a little better because I showed up?”

That, to me, would be a year worth finishing strong.

Pooja Thakkar is working to build cultural connections. You can read her column each week in the pages of The Reporter.