Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays ever! I know I say that about every holiday lol but I can’t help it. A day dedicated to eating whilst dressed up in your living room HAHA (sometimes I don’t know why we bother, we ALL know the sweats are coming out as soon as grace is over lol). But it’s FUN okay!

You have no idea how devastated I am about not being with my family. As incredible as Europe is, I am suprised by how much I truly miss today’s traditions. The comfort food, the mindless board games with my cousins, eating and then eating again, nursing a food coma on the couch. I never realized how much I loved those things until now that I’m not apart of it. It’s amazing how much I take for granted and don’t even notice.

Why is it so easy to overlook our blessings??

I’ll tell you why. Because our day to day life is SO busy. Our schedules are overflowing and our minds are overstimulated. We. Are. Tired!

We are too distracted to be grateful. And here is the tea…. gratitude must be worked for. Yeah I said it. Think of it like a muscle. The only way to make a muscle stronger is by first destroying it. So every leg day at the gym when you squat those 250 lbs (lol) you are actively hurting your muscles in hopes that they will grow stronger tomorrow.

Here is some more tea (its hot)…. the less you work a muscle, the weaker it is. Gratitude is an emotional muscle. If you don’t use it often, it’s likely you probably can’t bench much, especially if you’re sore. It is often hardest to practice gratitude through times of adversity. Because our muscle is weak. We must start feeding it if we wish to be stronger. Because that is what will pull us through when times are hard. At the end of the day, there is always something to be grateful for, even when it doesn’t feel like it.

So in an attempt to practice what I preach, here is something I am so grateful for. Last night my wonderful study abroad program organized a moc Thanksgiving dinner. It was at this cute little German restaurant (okterfest who?). As I sat down with a pork shank the size of my head, I looked around me and realized that I had friends lololol. That sounds lame but seriously! It struck me that I had people I genuinely get excited to see, people that make me laugh, people I now have memories with. Reflecting back to how lonely I used to be in the beginning, this was marvelous to me. I had created a family away from home.

And as I edit the pictures from the night, I realize I am not the only one. When I see the smiling faces, it is clear to see the connections that have been made. There is joy in my photographs. We were once all strangers. But slowly, through shared experiences, we have become more than that. And even when we part, we all will have shared Verona together. That–the vitality of the human spirit–is something i am very grateful for today.