Thanksgiving is the holiday known for giving thanks. Although we have now passed it, I like to think of this entire season, the holidays included, as a way to really think about all that we are blessed with and be extra grateful. Sometimes we don't realize just how much we cherish certain things until we sit down, think, and write them out. So I have decided to write out what I am most thankful for this year and I challenge you to do the same!
First and foremost, as with hopefully all of you, I am so thankful for my family. Family is everything. They are your support system, your fans, your reasons of laughter, and your forever people. I have the most funny, incredible, strong, and supportive brother. He makes me proud every day and I hope to be half as successful and meet a man half as amazing as him. I have a spontaneous, loving, one of a kind father that I can't help but to adore. My grandparents are the most genuine, attentive, and caring people who have always been my number one supporters. I have hilarious cousins, an aunt with the best fashion sense, and an uncle who has the biggest heart. How could someone not be grateful for a great bunch like mine?
You might have noticed I did not include my mom above because she is a whole separate entity. I would not be where I am, who I am, or how I am without my mom. Seriously, I would not be sitting at my computer, in Milledgeville, with a smile on my face, and in the happiest place in my life without this women. She is my heart and soul and I cherish her advice, her logic, her brilliance, her humor, her beauty, and her leadership. I am SO thankful, beyond thankful, for my extraordinary mother.
I am thankful for my beautiful, big hearted friends. Like I said, I am in a place in my life where I have never been happier. I owe half of my happiness to myself because I found it within, but I owe the other half to my friends. I am thankful for the belly laughs they give me, the crazy fun adventures, and all the memories we have made and have yet to make. I could not ask for better people to take on life with.
A big thing I am thankful for is the ability to be healthy. Nowadays, there are so many opportunities provided for us to take to be fit. I learned to not only run, but to love it as well, from a running app on my iPhone. I am thankful for the capability that technology has provided for us to be the best version of ourselves if we so desire.
Although it might be hard to say when we are experiencing them, I am thankful for the challenges and obstacles life throws at me. I look at them as God's test to see how I will and should handle the situation and I look to Him (and my mom) to figure out the best way to overcome it. I take them as learning experiences and see how I can grow from them. I am who I am and I have the values and beliefs I have from what I have gotten out of life's hardest moments.
I am so thankful for the beautiful city of Savannah, Georgia. I can not think of a better place to call home. You don't realize just how great Savannah is until you have to leave it.
I am thankful for random acts of kindness. There is not much that is better than knowing someone thought about you, even if it was for a second. Receiving an act of kindness and actually doing a random act of kindness makes my day and honestly, genuine nice people are just the best.
I am extremely grateful for my huge belief in faith. I would not have gotten through anything in my life without believing that it happens for a reason and that what's meant to be will always be.
Here's the biggest one: I could not be more thankful for pizza and ranch. I mean really, I don't think there is a lot that can beat it.
I am thankful for music because it can put me into a whole different mood and place.
And I am thankful for weekends because I don't think I could make it through the school week, or even life without them.
This is one of my longer articles, but I wanted to share what I cherish most in my life in hopes that it makes you think about what you couldn't really do life without. Maybe you have some of the same things or maybe all different, but at the end of the day there is ALWAYS something to be thankful for.