A (late) Thanksgiving post

Happy Thanksgiving! I know, I’m late… 🙂

I just wanted to take a moment to share all that I am thankful for this year. Frankly speaking, I was quite emotional Wednesday and Thursday as I reflected on all the amazing experiences I had in the last year and couldn’t wrap my head around how much I have grown in only a year. I met so many amazing people and shared lots of great memories together, memories I wouldn’t trade for the world. When my family sat around and talked about what we were grateful for, I couldn’t get it out because I was feeling a bit emotional and shocked (if you want to put it that way) at what an amazing year I’ve had. As I’ve processed my thoughts over the last few days, I understood that I was honestly just overwhelmed with a feeling of gratitude for all the people and experiences in my life.

First and foremost, I am extremely thankful for having a roof over my head, food on my plate, and an overall healthy lifestyle. It might sound obvious but these things are what make our everyday life possible and are often taken for granted. I am so grateful for all the things that make up my everyday life and look forward to what the future has to bring.

As I’ve mentioned in my previous post about my family, I am forever grateful for their continued support and unconditional love. I am so grateful to have such close family and cousins within a mile radius of my house, it is a comforting feeling that I can never take for granted. We meet almost every weekend, yet never get tired of each other. I mean yes, some days we don’t have anything to do and just sit around but just the fact that we have each other and each other’s support is so assuring. Additionally, I’ve talked about my family around the world in other posts and I am forever and always grateful for them and their support. I consider my uncle and aunt (dad’s brother and wife) are my second parents and all my cousins as my siblings. Together, we are the craziest, goofiest, and loudest bunch, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. If you’re reading this: Thank you so much for always being there and keeping your doors open for us whenever we need it. The feeling of comfort and joy is indescribable and irreplaceable.

This year specifically, I felt extra extra extra grateful for my friends. I’ve always been the person that wanted to spend time with friends, go out, make memories, and have a blast. However, as I talked about in an old post about my struggle with self-confidence, I had a really hard time going out and meeting new people. I would barely talk to people in school and my social life outside of school would revolve around the same couple of people. I would look on YouTube and social media and see high schoolers posting about the wonderful things that they’re doing with their big group of friends. I’ve always wanted that life but was too scared to create it for myself. In the last year, I was able to break out of this and really get to know and meet people who love me for me, and who genuinely love to spend time with me, both in and out of school. I stopped hiding my true self and decided to let it shine. It was such a freeing feeling. I stopped confining myself to these fake boundaries that I set, and it was honestly the best thing I could do for myself. Reflecting on this the last week made me quite emotional and quiet because I never thought I’d be able to find such amazing people in high school. It also just made me scared as to where I’ll be next year and if I’ll be able to keep in touch with them and keep the same bond we’ve created. I am forever grateful for them and my high school experience would definitely not be the same if it wasn’t for the memories we shared together from impromptu evening walks and Thai food dinners to staying up past 4am, parties, and celebrations. If you’re reading this: thank you so so much for letting me be me. It’s the best gift ever.

Apart from family and friends, special thanks to Urban Hydration (the company I’m interning at) for making my internship experience extremely valuable. I never expected to get such an amazing experience as a high schooler and am excited to see everything I can learn in the future.

Overall, thank you to everyone who makes my life meaningful. Even the smallest conversation sometimes changes me in the craziest ways and I am so grateful for every experience life gave me so far, both good and bad. This next year will be crazy, I already know it, and I’m so excited (and obviously very nervous) to see where life takes me in my next major step. Thank you to everyone for your support and I hope you love reading my posts as much as I love writing them. I hope these posts put a smile on your face. As I always say, keep smiling and never stop dreaming 🙂