Happy Thanksgiving

As I look back on the year I've had, I've been pretty darn lucky to have the opportunities that I have had. No, really. I've been incredibly healthy, I somehow managed to graduate from CSU, and I have a lovely job that is, well how do I put this lightly, totally out of my league.

For starters, in Nov. 2004, we first learned that I was officially brain tumor free, which is quite the accomplishment. And here I am 12 years later, and it's still gone. And that is something I will always remember. That battle was over, and right now I'm winning the fight, but we'll continue to hope that is the case. The next MRI is in December, so fingers crossed!

Secondly, I am grateful to have the most loving and supportive parents. I may make some pretty awful decisions sometimes, but my parents have always claimed me at the end of the day. They've always been there for me. They sent me on my semester in France and my dad got me a new car when I moved to Wyoming. They paid for my three majors and four years of college, too. And the fact that I got to graduate debt-free is literally the best thing in the world. My parents have always done things with the best interests of my brother and I in mind, and I love them for that. Yep, I have pretty great parents.

And along with that there is my big, little brother, Michael. We don't talk that often, but we're always glad to have each other. We're there for one another when we want to tell each other things we can't quite tell mom and dad... oops, did I let that slip? And we didn't get along real well when we were kids (my mom likes to say we never broke each other's limbs but we did "verbal sparring"), but now I think we're both happy the other is still around.

I'm also grateful to have such supportive people in my life. Whether those people are like my Taekwondo master, Master A and his wife and family, or to my college friends, Jenna, Maria and Rachel, to name a few, or to my college professors, who at the end of my last semester knew everything that I was doing and encouraged me to keep going, even though I'm sure they all wanted to slap me upside the head. I am who and where I am today because of the people who, in the back of their minds, may have doubted me, but they didn't let it show. My friends in college would sometimes just show up at my apartment and give me a hug and then leave, or send me encouraging messages when I was tired and just didn't think I could handle life. And my professors, oh my! They definitely worked with me during my three-major, three-job life at the end of my college career and understood everything, or at least acted like they did. I'm sure I sat in their classes looking so tired sometimes, and I always had some sort of caffeine on my desk. It got a little rough at the end when I had to add freaking out about what the heck I was doing after college to the list of things to do daily, but a couple of my professors wrote me recommendations, and some of them graciously understood when I had to miss class because of interviews. You all do so much and are so underappreciated, and I hope that changes because a lot of you impacted my life in ways I never thought possible because you just understood my situation!

I am also the most grateful to be part of the Sky High Hope Camp community. These people give me the strength to carry on literally every day. For those of you who don't know, Sky High Hope Camp is a cam for children and their siblings who have been affected by cancer. I started going to this camp when I was 10 year old and instantly fell in love. It was so nice to be in a place where it didn't matter what you had or how you were treated to get rid of it, or how many scars you had showing, or if your hair hadn't grown back yet. We all, in some way, understood what everyone else there had been through. Every year we'd return and seem to pick up right where we left off. We were able to have some pretty deep conversations about cancer, but that's not all that we talked about. Now, I'm a counselor at the camp and I get to give these children the same experiences that I had, and I couldn't be more grateful for that. I don't know where I'd be today without these people in my life. It's odd to think that without cancer being a part of my life that I probably wouldn't even know these wonderful humans.

Adding onto that, there are two people in my life that I am so grateful to say I know them. Sarah and Shania, you two are the strongest women I have ever known. The amount that you have both been through makes my heart sad and hurt, but you both have such beautiful attitudes toward life and such faith in God, that I know you are protected in his hands. And you both ask me how I am not too far into our conversations, even though you both have so much on your mind. It's incredible, and if the world could only learn compassion from you two, it would be a much, much better place.

Lastly, because I've rambled on for nearly 1,000 words, and because I need to wrap this up before midnight, I am so, so grateful for my job. It's really odd when people ask me if I am a professional (paid) journalist, and I get to say, "yes." Sometimes it still catches me off guard and I babble around with my words for a little while, but something made somebody somewhere want to hire me. And that's pretty special to me. I work with the greatest group of people I could possibly imagine, and they teach me a lot. I'm the newbie in the office, and I still have a lot to learn, but I have an awesome editor who's going to get me there, I know it!

Congratulations! You made it to the end! Enjoy one of my favorite songs about gratitude!

Be well, everyone!