Thanksgiving

It’s American Thanksgiving, and I’m sitting panic-stricken and over-caffeinated in the basement of my Canadian university’s library, typing combination after combination of keywords into Google in the hope that maybe this time, Google-magic will work and the perfect source will appear to make all my problems go away. With four papers due in the next seven days, and the threat of an unlikely but still very possible mental breakdown looming ahead, it seems I have very little to be thankful for.

But really I do.

I’m thankful for my family, first and foremost, because first of all they’re all amazing, and second of all, they have never ceased to be my cheering fans, supporting me every step of the way no matter how far away I am or how impossible the tasks ahead of me seem. I’m thankful that they tried so hard to get me to be able to come home for the holiday, and I’m thankful they didn’t question my decision or guilt me (any more than necessary) when it turned out I wouldn’t be able to make it. I’m thankful for their unrelenting awesomeness, because seriously, how do you guys do it all? And I’m thankful that no matter the distance, they’re always in my life.

I’m thankful for my friends, spread around the globe as they may be. I know some of the coolest people on the planet, and I’m constantly amazed by the things they’re coming up with, the places they’re going, the opportunities they’re finding, and the hilarious things they’re saying. I’m thankful for the people who have been in my life as long as I can remember - you know who you are - and the people I just met this year (shoutout to CFQC for being hella awesome). I’m thankful for the conversations that can happen with years in between that feel like we’re picking up right where we left off. I’m thankful for midnight snapchats and random good morning texts and throwback thursdays and that time we ran into each other totally unexpectedly and screamed just a little too loud. And even though there are a lot of people I’ll probably never run into again, I’m thankful for the memories we made together that I’ll always have.

I’m thankful for the little things, the privileged things. Yeah, I hate that word too, but it has to be said. In the light of everything that’s been happening this past month - this past year? - I’m more thankful now than ever to have grown up in good circumstances, to have been born in a country as a part of a race and a class that mean I will probably never have to fear the threat of violence and gross injustice in my life. I’m thankful that I can be here, at university, studying to make the world a better place. I’m thankful that I have a roof over my head, food to eat (and good food at that, thanks roomie!), and the resources to travel and go to concerts and buy books. I’m thankful for the little things, because I certainly don’t think about them enough, and I’m ever so lucky to have them.

So I guess, in a way, I’m thankful for these papers I’ve now been procrastinating on far too long. Because what it means to write papers is to have the opportunity to get an education many will never receive; to have the ability to think clearly and write soundly (I hope) and to have my biggest complaint be the amount of work I signed myself up for. And that’s actually pretty great.

Happy Thanksgiving!