The following is a non-exhaustive, non-prioritized list of things I am grateful for this year:
- I am grateful to live in a city like Denver, that knows the value of helping our neighbors and living in community.
- I am grateful for teachers and librarians who work tirelessly every day to protect and encourage learning, truth, and curiosity.
- I am grateful for the community I’ve found online (both the direct and parasocial) that show me how to love, struggle, laugh, and learn as our real selves.
- I am grateful for the two silly dogs coating my home in hair and unflinching affection.
- I am grateful for the silly, rambunctious, joyous family I’m in – and the mother who will die of embarrassment due to her daughter’s inclusion of a dangling participle on her public blog.
- I am grateful for the large, robust, welcoming family I’m marrying into.
- I’m grateful for my very ugly, very not funny, very boring friends (😉)
- I’m grateful for the young people constantly proving they are more than the worst the media believes of them.
- I’m grateful for the arts and humanities for helping us see the most true versions of ourselves.
- I’m grateful for the many forces conspiring to put me in this wonderful life, and the many people working hard to make sure everyone has the opportunity to live a life like mine.
Honorable mention: I am thankful for you, the person reading this. Your very existence. Happy Thanksgiving, all.
