Thankful.

Hey everyone! So here's what's been going on...at my school we have to do a certain amount of experiential hours for each class (approx 5 per class) and we just have to go to random school-sponsored activities and write up a response to complete this. Well, I had nothing so far for my intro to Lit class so I decided to go to this thing called "Faces of Hunger". Honestly, I thought it would be a bunch of the homeless people complaining about how they were screwed over and just go on and on forever, but I was shocked. At first it kinda was what I expected, each of the five people (all women who are either homeless now or once were) talked about their lives and how they got to be homeless and how afterwards the system was basically just screwing them. After this, there was a question and answer period. We learned about how everyone has to make under a certain amount of money to get help from a shelter, how much custody you have to have of your children to receive food stamps for them, and how the children are so stressed out about their homelessness that their schoolwork suffers tremendously. This alone made me and my friend decide that we wanted to make a difference...we wanted to help these children. As I was making this revelation, one of the women was speaking and something she said caught my attention. Although I do not remember the exact words, she said that she was thankful. I found this odd. I mean come on, thankful to be homeless??? But yes, this woman went on to say that she was thankful for her children, and for life in general, that she got to sit in front of us and talk to us about her life and that just made me think, well if she can be thankful and she doesn't even have the money for a place to live than why can't everyone be thankful?

I'm thankful. Especially for my friends. I received some news today that to me was pretty bad, a precursor to my worst nightmare coming true. When faced with this situation, I called Krista, who is definitely like a sister to me. She stayed on the phone with me until I was calmed down enough for her to go to dinner. Then I tried to call Nicole, but she never answers her phone until three hours later! (just kidding nicole ily!) After this, I just was in that state where you just can't stop moving so I cleaned my portion of my dorm room, made my bed, washed some dishes, did my hair, all before one of my new best friends, Ruthann, came over. I wasn't sure until today just how much she cared about me. When she came into my room she just looked at me and knew something was up, I told her what was wrong and she hugged me and then didn't leave me until about 10:30, when we were hanging with some other close friends. I am especially thankful for the fact that even though I've met my new friends just over 2 months ago, they really care about me and will be there for me. I am so extraordinarily thankful for my two best friends in the world, Krista and Nicole. I have no idea what I'd do without them. What are you thankful for?