Thankful Thursday | Thank YOU

You guys, thank you so very much for all your kind comments yesterday. Whenever I write a post like that, I have a tiny bit of hesitation…like, “What if I’m the only one who has struggles like this? What if I’m being dramatic?”

But then when you guys respond, I am reminded that human struggles are pretty universal. So, thank you for reminding me of that.

And thank you for offering encouragement to me; your words buoy my spirits in a very real way, and I am grateful. I did not manage to respond to all the comments, but please know that I read and absorbed each one!

This week, I am thankful:

that Sonia is coming over to join us today

We’re going to have a girly and low-key Thanksgiving together, and I think it will be fun. We’re going to watch Grease (I’ve never seen it before, actually! But Lisey says I will like it.) and have a big breakfast-for-dinner spread.

that it’s 2022 and not 2021

I was thinking back to this time last year, and all that has happened in the last 365 days, and then I felt so grateful that I have already survived almost this whole year.

You know how there are some years that you look at and think, “Whew, I’m glad I don’t have to do that over again!”? This is one for me. 😉

for a warm day yesterday

It has been rather not-warm of late:

But we had a warm day yesterday! I had no school, so I took myself out to the taco truck at lunchtime and I felt SO GOOD sitting there in the sunshine waiting for my tacos.

that someone cleaned off the trails

I visited one of my trails that’s a short drive away, and this particular set of trails is little hard to follow if the path is obscured by leaves. So I was happy to see that someone had cleared most of the trails of leaves. Yay!

Funny story: one time I did get a little bit lost on these trails (which is an anomaly because I almost NEVER get lost). Luckily, a man came down the trail and he had two cats with him, one in a front pack and one in a back pack.

I figured this was a sign that he was probably a decent person (either that, or it was a very clever Good Person™ disguise), so I asked him for directions and he got me unstuck.

Apparently he takes his cats on this trail regularly for the purpose of letting them frolic in the ravine (!!)

This could never happen with our cat because she is too terrified to even walk out our front door. 😉

that my parents emphasized effort over intelligence

In my developmental psychology class, we were talking about what messages we heard about intelligence as we were growing up.

And I shared that my parents didn’t really talk about intelligence a whole lot; I don’t know if they said it outright, but I definitely know I got the impression that success in school (and other endeavors) was largely a matter of hard work, not innate intelligence.

I appreciate this perspective because intelligence is sort of fixed; you can’t do much about that, so a focus on intelligence would have made me feel a little less empowered.

Also: intelligence is of little use without good work habits, so I’m grateful to have had those instilled in me. Work habits matter no matter what your innate level of intelligence is!

that there are only two more weeks of classes!

I am super happy that the finish line is near; this means there’s only two more week’s worth of microbiology and chemistry information that I have to tackle and absorb.

that some of my microbio is feeling more relevant

Some of these last few modules have been more interesting to me because they are more related to the human body (which is my main science interest!)

For instance, we recently learned about infectious microbes, microbe remediation, and anti-microbial drugs. The drug part in particular felt valuable to me because I know in nursing school, I’m going to need to learn tons of drug names.

So, I figure if I do a really good job of learning these antibiotics, anti-fungals, anti-virals, and anti-parasitic drugs, I’ll be grateful to my past self once I’m in pharmacology classes.

It’s like an investment in Future Kristen. 😉

that I found some half and half

MY GOODNESS it is hard to find cream-related products around here right now. I wanted some half and half for soup and I came up dry at three grocery stores.

But then it occured to me to try 7-11 and amazingly, they had half and half. Yay!

Hopefully the cream supply problem will get worked out after Thanksgiving.

What are you thankful for today?

(Isn’t it nice that Thankful Thursday always lands on Thanksgiving Day?)