Dear Katie,

Wow. It is hard to believe that I have come to my tenth blog post, the end of this assigned blogging journey as part of my freshman Rhetoric and Civic Life course. This means that I have just three more weeks left in the fall semester… what? Everyone says it, but it is true, so I will say it again: time flies. I feel like you just dropped me off yesterday, yet I am already 1/8 through my time here at Penn State. For my final post, it seems fitting to talk about gratitude as we just celebrated Thanksgiving, an entire holiday dedicated to giving thanks for the things we have. Over break, my THON Committee started an email chain where everyone shared what they were thankful for and then “popcorned” someone else to do the same, and it was seriously amazing to read what everyone wrote. I loved that it was a reason to pause and put gratitude down in words, and it really made me realize how important it is to live a life full of gratitude, not just in the week surrounding Thanksgiving. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, here is a (non-exhaustive) list of everything I am thankful for. On the bad days where I am having a hard time reminding myself how extremely blessed I am, I will refer back to this list, and I hope it inspires you to do the same for yourself.

I am thankful for the little things…

• hot cup of coffee with a generous amount of creamer
• good music, especially Taylor Swift throwbacks and coffee shop acoustic
• fall scented candles
• colorful pens and calligraphy
• good books
• beach days (see above)
• fresh veggies and salad
• Greys Anatomy

I am thankful for the big things…

• Family
• Health
• The fact that my biggest worries are exams and papers…. How blessed am I that these are my biggest obstacles? Very.
• Technology to connect me to the people I am far from. FaceTime, you rock.
• Freedom, both the freedom afforded to me by living in the United States and the freedom to choose my path for the future and recognize the limitless possibilities

 

I am also thankful for this blogging assignment as it was a much-needed outlet during my first semester and ended up being something truly enjoyable. Maybe this is not goodbye and I will continue blogging outside of my class assignment. Who knows. Either way, I am grateful to be your older sister and to put my thoughts onto this virtual platform to reach you.

Until next time,

 

 

 

“Gratitude is the sweetest thing in a seekers life – in all human life. If there is gratitude in your heart, then there will be tremendous sweetness in your eyes.” -Sri Chinmoy