Cranberry Sauce and Mountain Sky

My Thanksgiving homecoming is always a bit strange. There is this sort of reverse culture shock I experience when coming home from college, and this is only magnified by the minuscule, Wednesday-to-Sunday break. The trip is relaxing and stressful all in one. And yet, I am struck, all over again, by gratitude for this life that I live and love. I started my journey of gratitude when I started this blog, nearly two and a half years ago, and it has shaped the way I look at the world.

College is hard. Really hard. In the next three weeks, I have two ten page papers to write, a research proposal to propose, a mock audition, a Kinesiology exam, and I don't even want to think about the rest. I'm sitting here writing this blog, utterly exhausted from my Lyft ride back to campus, yet so happy I cannot imagine living any other way. This Thanksgiving, I am so grateful, so thankful, and so full.

The things I am grateful for always surprise me. For example, I love the cranberry sauce more than any other Thanksgiving dish. What's more shameful, is that I love the canned Ocean Spray cranberry sauce. Yikes, it hurts me to even type those words. Every Thanksgiving, I look forward to the strange gelatinous substance that I love.

This year, my dad cooked Alaskan salmon on the grill for Thanksgiving, mostly for me, the pescaterian of the family. Marinated in soy sauce and brown sugar, this is one of my favorite meals. No one on this earth makes salmon like my dad.

I am thankful for old friends, new friends, roommates-turned-friends, teachers-turned-friends, good-natured strangers in the airport, friendly security guards who need their cars jumped.

The highlight of the Thanksgiving dinner table, uncomfortable conversations inevitably crop up. I am thankful for a university that teaches me to love above all else, and I hope and pray that someday all people can overcome their differences. In the meantime, let the uncomfortable conversations roll, for they are the only way we can engage in dialogue and make change.

I am thankful for sibling shenanigans - the kind that manifests in Snapchat video wars, laughter til our sides hurt, and music in our shared bathroom.

Pumpkin muffins never get old. Every time I make them - which is a constant process, to me, they are not seasonal - I worry that I will grow tired of pumpkin muffins or the crumble topping. Hundreds of batches later, I still love them.

I am thankful for family movie nights, watching rom coms with my parents, compromising on Guardians of the Galaxy, and giving in to watch Alien Covenant. It is not a true break without a little popcorn and a good film, and this break, I watched three.

Above all else, I am grateful for the Rocky Mountain sky that makes me remember why I believe in God and why I call Colorado home. Every single sunset takes my breath away, and the sight of the snow-packed peaks makes me want to run through meadows and dance and write poetry (which is really why I do what I do). I am so thankful that my life makes gratitude easy.