Summer is almost gone, and not just any summer. If vaccinations continue to rise and we remain careful, conscious and safe, this could be the summer to end all summers and the summer to finally end the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is a time for outdoors, for late nights and long days spent under the sun and stars. It is a time for travel and trade, for escaping school and work. With that in mind, we hope our impact issue celebrates the outside and our journeys beyond our homes.

But we also seek to share the outside world. To appreciate the outdoors in the midst of a climate crisis and to come together to protect the outside as a place we share. We want to spotlight the outsiders, the siblings, children, parents and people who are excluded.

Most of all, we want to celebrate the outside not as somewhere that’s frightening or dangerous but as somewhere that’s a part of us. The outside — real and imaginary — is where we find adventures of all kinds and where, ultimately, we will learn and grow.