Thanksgiving will be here next week and I’m pretty sure everyone’s already preparing for it. Your mother’s in the kitchen preparing the turkey, your grandmother is making her delicious sweet potato pie, your aunt is bringing her hearty macaroni and cheese and so forth. Yes, sitting at a table surrounded with delicious food and people who you love dearly is a great blessing, but have you really sat back and analyzed what you’re thankful for? You see, sometimes we focus on the things we don’t have rather than on the things we do have. Thanksgiving is a very important time for me because I sit back, analyze what I have and how blessed I am to have what I have. I have a number of things to be thankful for, but what I’m HIGHLY thankful for is my education, my family, my creative mind, my health, and strength. I’m very thankful for my grandparents because without them, I’m probably wouldn’t be in the position that I’m in right now. Since Thanksgiving is one of mine and maybe your favorite times of the year, I decided to come up with five reasons why we should be thankful.

One of the things we should be thankful for is good health. You’re in good health, but there’s someone out there who’s sick and clinging to life as we speak. However, even if your health is not all that great, it could be worse than what it is. Be thankful for the working parts on your body.

Second, we should be thankful for having the opportunity to attend college and get an education. There are plenty of people out there who do not have the opportunity to attend college due to either financial or family issues. Even though some of us might be in debt after we graduate and that’s unfortunate, we’re blessed to receive our degrees.

Third, we should be thankful for having a roof over our heads. There’s someone living under a bridge or sleeping on a park bench right now. Whether you live in an apartment, a tent, or a 10-story house rather, just be thankful you have somewhere to rest your head and call home.

Fourth, learning from past mistakes. Have you heard the saying “Bad decisions make the best stories”? Well this saying is true. When you learn from past mistakes, you’ll make better decisions in the future. We should be thankful for past mistakes. When you know better, you do better. I know I’m thankful for my poor decisions I’ve made in the past. At the end of the day, I look back and say “thank you” because I know better. So I’m thankful for my past mistakes and the ability to learn from them.

Last, but definitely not least, we should very thankful for waking up. We should be blessed that we’re allowed the opportunity to open our eyes because there’s people out here who didn’t open their eyes. Many people pass in their sleep, and we’re lucky enough to wake up and began our day.

I hope I gave you all something to think about and reflect on. There are things we have and we take those things for granted, but I think we should appreciate the things we have. Enjoy the times with your family, and have a very Happy Thanksgiving!