As I quietly sit alone in my kitchen on this Thanksgiving evening after a long day of teaching, eating a tortilla with melted cheese and a bit of salsa, I realize that I have so much for which to be thankful.
Now, I promise I won't make this long but I really just feel the need to write about what gives me reason to be thankful this year.
This year has been one filled with change and adventure. Of course, life is always an adventure, but mine became more of one after I signed a contract agreeing to spend the next year of my life teaching in South Korea. I am so thankful I had the opportunity to skip across the ocean and spend the first year of my non-school life teaching English in a foreign country. I am thankful for both the good and bad experiences that have accompanied this journey. I have learned more about my weaknesses and my strengths and how to use them to my advantage. So far, the opportunities to strengthen my faith as well as my character have been endless.
I am thankful for my family. My parents were, of course, very reluctant to let their daughter fly halfway across the world and live there for a year . . . alone. But after I decided this was what I needed to do after graduation, they were there with 110% support. You are and always will be the amazing people I turn to when life gives me both trouble and joy. Angela, my dear sister, continuously told me to stay home and not go. She was always reminding me of how much she would miss me. As we embraced one last time before leaving her in Lincoln, she even told me that she already missed me. We've always seemed to have our differences (to say the least. lol) growing up, but her hug was filled with enough love to get me through a year apart from her. All of my other relatives - I love seeing your comments on my blog and I love knowing that you all support me and love me so much. I don't know how I got so lucky to be stuck with such an awesome family but somehow it happened and the rest of you should be jealous of all of the amazingness to which I'm related.
I am thankful for my friends. Wow, I don't know how some people make it through life without friends! Being here, I've realized just how important friends are to me. When you don't know anyone and have no one to talk to, trust, rely upon, or hang out with, life can seem a bit more challenging and a bit less enjoyable. So if you're reading this and we're friends, or ever become friends, please know that I appreciate you and our relationship beyond words. Without my friends' support, love, and encouragement throughout my life, and especially since I've been here, I wouldn't be the same person I am today. Thank you for helping to shape, and to continue to shape, me through experiences, talks, and laughter.
There's so much more but I promised this would be short so I'll wrap it up here. I guess I can basically say that I'm thankful for every day I have the privilege of living and every new morning I get to experience. I know that might sound cliche or like a cop out, but really, truly, honestly, that's what I'm thankful for - each day and whatever might come with it.
No comments:
Post a Comment