NOT another Thanksgiving post!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This post may seem as if I am abandoning all my nonconformist beliefs, but rest assured, I am NOT!!! I have just been particularly grateful for a couple things lately --in no relation to the Holiday, I would have been as equally grateful for them if it was March, and would still be blogging about it. So the fact that today is Thanksgiving is purely coincidence. Now that we've got that all cleared up...

I have the greatest sister in the world. I've been reminiscing in particular about a cross country trip the two of us made. There are songs that will always remind me of her and that trip, and so many memories that I will forever hold near and dear to my heart ...most of which make me laugh so hard --still --that it brings tears to my eyes! I rely on my sister a lot. She is someone that I know I can call at any time of day or night for any reason and she will be there for me. I love her so much!!

I also have the worlds greatest brother! Pretty lucky of me huh?! He is the sweetest most caring and genuine person on the planet. He worries about me and checks in on me regularly :) To make sure I'm well and happy and even to make sure that I'm saving enough for my retirement in the future with all the vacations I've been going on. He just worries about me because he loves me, and I am so grateful to have such an amazing protector! One of my favorite memories of my brother is when he showed up at my college apartment one day on his way to class with a giant box of goldfish crackers. He knew they were my favorite, and said that he just wanted to give them to me and say hi. See why I love this kid so freakin' much?! I have no idea how I lucked out in the family department, but I sure did! I love them more than anything in this world!

I also have been blessed with the greatest friends in the world. Friends who love me and stand by me no matter what messes I consistently and repeatedly get myself into. Friends that I can call or email and vent all my stress and tears and fears as well as all my hopes and dreams. Friends that I know will be there for me no matter what. Friends that have my back and are behind me in every way, no matter what it may cost them. I am possibly the most blessed person on the planet!

I have a lot to live up to, as you can see from this post! I hope to one day be as great a sister and friend as the amazing people I am surrounded by. This is clearly not an all inclusive list of things I am grateful for, but just a couple things that have been running through my mind lately. (I think I've said that the last two or three posts ...weird. Random ...anyways...)

Well, much love to you all. I can never adequately express how I feel about you and how blessed I am to be surrounded by such amazing people.

Thanksgiving Thoughts

As I sit here my last night at home, about to embark on the next great adventure in my life, a lot of thoughts are running through my head. Thanksgiving has long been a favorite holiday of mine. I think even more than Christmas, slightly less than the Fourth of July. I have so much to be grateful for, and I love the entire holiday dedicated to pondering on my many blessings. I have been privileged to get to see a lot of the country for my job. I must say that no place has struck me quite the way Washington DC did. Not the great city of New York, not the pristine beaches of Southern California, and not the magical wood and water lands of Seattle. I'm sure many of you are surprised to hear this. It was absolutely indescribable to be in the place were the history of our great nation has been and is being written. To visit the cold stone monuments and memorials to those who authored the history of our country when they were warm alive and vibrant. And most of all to walk somberly through the rain soaked grounds at Arlington where the very essence of what the country stands for lays to rest; the place where valor rests. I have been fascinated wit US history since I was in 5th grade and read the book Johnny Tremaine. From the Revolution all the way up to the present day ...I love it! I have often even thought that I would love to go back to school and get my masters in US history. Honestly it's a pipe dream, and will likely never happen, but in the meantime I pacify myself by delving into every piece of historical literature I can get my hands on, fiction and non.

You're probably wondering what all this has to do with Thanksgiving. Well, I am enormously grateful for my American heritage, but that's not why I was thinking about history this Thanksgiving. I have been waxing philosophic about the way we are writing our own pages on the books of history lately. I have spent a lot of time in the last few months wondering why things happen the way they do, and why we are prompted to do certain things and take certain paths. The only thing I have been able to come up with is that I don't know. But I do know in whom I have trusted. I know that the Lord has a plan for me and that his plan is perfect, and it does me no good to be a backseat driver and whine over where I think we should and should not have turned. Every moment of every day is a day in history. It is a day that we won't get back. Each decision we make is a different thread in the fabric of the quilt that is our lives.

Four months ago I left Seattle for New York City. It was a decision that I knew was right, but it still caused me all kinds of inner turmoil. I had never felt more at home in my life than I had in Seattle. I love Logan, and I love my family more than you can know, but I must admit that on all my journeys I have never once been homesick for Utah. I've missed my family and I've missed my friends, but not a single ounce of homesickness for Logan. Seattle was a different story. I loved New York, and I wouldn't trade the experiences I had and the friends I made for anything in the world. I have no doubt that I was supposed to be there. I have no doubt that I am supposed to go back to Seattle tomorrow, but why? I don't know.

So I sit here on the eve of the next page in my history book. I love being at home. There is a lot to be said for sleeping in my old bed, doing not a darn thing but whatever I want and chillin' with my awesome family. No matter where I go, this place, here, my parent's house, will always feel right. What am I the most grateful for? You might say that it's everything I'm leaving. Go figure. I like to think that I'm not leaving what I'm the most grateful for. What I'm the most grateful for stays with me always. My parents are always my parents wherever I go. My brother and sister are always my brother and sister wherever I go. I am the same person wherever I go. Who I am, what I am never changes. And that is what I'm grateful for more than anything. I'm grateful for the ability that I have to write my own history. I'm grateful for the ability I have to change the world. My world, and in some small part the greater whole of the world. I'm grateful for all that have gone before me and are at rest in Arlington National Cemetery and in unmarked graves and battlefields throughout the world so that I can have all that I have today. I'm grateful for the legacy I have from my family. I'm grateful for the support of the greatest of all friends and family. The things we are the most grateful for should not change. So, Happy Thanksgiving everyone! And happy history making!