Thankful, but Passing on the Thanksgiving Food

TIA HERE with an obligatory, cheesy Thanksgiving post. Because the truth is, I have a lot to be thankful for. A whole lot.

But first, let's get all the negativity out. I'll be honest: I don't care about Thanksgiving. I really don't. It's kind of a lame holiday. The family I usually have Thanksgiving with is the family I see all the time, so it's not like a big, novel get-together—it's just like a normal dinner for us. Except, I also don't really like Thanksgiving food. I think turkey's too dry (can I just eat the gravy?), cranberry sauce is probably the least interesting fruit sauce of all time, and stuffing is okay once I pick out all the celery. I'd say that I like mashed potatoes and yams, but really they're just the True Neutrals of the Thanksgiving dinner table. Plus, I kind of want to only eat the marshmallows off of the yams and leave the rest (aka all I really want are marshmallows). However, the one exception is the green bean casserole, which is HANDS DOWN amazing. But everything else is a solid meh.

So now that I've griped about why I think Thanksgiving is lame, I'll turn to what's good about it—actually being thankful. Because even though I may not be thankful for the food, there are a lot of things that I am thankful for. Here are some:

Creative people. There aren't enough people willing to really tap into their creativity nowadays. People curb to judgment so easily, and see being creative as childish, or silly, or unproductive. Creative people are brave. They stand in the face of societal opposition and do something more amazing than a lot of people will achieve in their lives—they attempt to be publicly, emotionally honest. They put themselves on the spot, and bare their souls, and there's nothing more inspiring than that. 

Altruistic kindness. It's real. It may be rare, but it's real and I've been lucky enough to see it. People who do good and expect nothing in return put something really good in the air. It's contagious. There are still things I hold onto, moments when I witnessed this type of kindness. Little things: When my friend gave me copious amounts of banana plushies to cheer me up, when study abroad friends took care of me the week I was sick, when any friend would reach out to give me a kind word or listen to me when I needed it most. A surprising amount of people won't even do that much. But some do.

Encouragement. I'm a very easily discouraged person. I feel like I constantly need support to get through the day, or through an assignment, or through a personal project (okay, I'm kind of exaggerating—but encouragement really helps). This semester, I've felt incredibly energized and encouraged by those around me, whether it be in critiques in class, or comments on videos, or just a great atmosphere of talented people—it's been really nice. I've felt inspired, uplifted, and determined to work on my projects in a way that I have never felt before. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has made this year great. I may not be celebrating Thanksgiving in the most traditional sense this year, but I'm hoping to really fill myself with thankfulness and take on the rest of this year with vigor and happiness.

For more, check out Tia's new blog!

Much love,

T.