Gratitude.

Day 24: BootsnAll Indie Travel Project

Today’s Prompt: Giving Thanks – Seeing what others have – and don’t have – around the world often helps us appreciate our own good fortune. What are you thankful for this year?

Throughout the past two to three years, I have tried to infuse gratitude within my daily life, to be thankful for the good, as well as the bad. Sometimes I write everything down, other times I recite it to myself in the shower, while brushing my teeth, or driving in my car. From traveling, I have realized just how much I have to be grateful for and how many opportunities I’ve been given because my grandparents risked it all to come to the United States.

Something that upsets me is that Thanksgiving tends to be the day where everyone updates their Facebook status and tells the entire world what they are grateful for, almost as if to shove it down everyone’s throats as an appetizer to Thanksgiving dinner. While it’s important to be grateful, I feel that gratitude is something private, something that shouldn’t be announced across a social networking site.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Thanksgiving…the food, the family, the gratitude. I think it’s so important for people to recognize what they are grateful for, and reflect on their past year. But, I don’t like that it is just for one day. Gratitude needs to be something that we do on a daily basis.

You should give thanks each time you arrive somewhere safely, even if you are just traveling by car. Give daily gratitude for your job, even if you hate it so much that you can barely get out of bed and start your day. Give thanks for that great parking spot you got. Give thanks for each meal you eat. Give thanks for the family members that challenge you. Be grateful for the good and the bad because each part of your life is a chance to grow and learn more about yourself.

What am I grateful for this year? I think just by looking at my past year of posts, it’s really easy to see all that I have to give gratitude for. But, it’s so much more than that. Each small piece of my life is something that deserves a “thank you.” There is simply no room to list it all.

Instead of this post being about all that I am grateful for, I vow to become a more grateful person each day, and I challenge you do to the same. To be grateful for each challenge and for each triumph, no matter how small. Because we just never know how many days we have left to be thankful for.

“Give thanks. Appreciate what you DO have…the more we give thanks, the more we receive to be thankful for. Gratitude is the gift that always gives back.” -Matthew McConaughey