When Thanksgiving 2016 rolled around, I realized that I had been working on expressing gratitude all year long. This has been arguably the best year of my life, and I have been trying to let the universe, and the people who made it that way, know how grateful I am for everything that has happened. This Thanksgiving was unlike all of the rest, as I did not rely on one day to say my thanks and move on; I had been building them up and sending them out like thank-you cards all year long.

I saw a hilarious tweet the other day that said something along the lines of, " support your friends...I don't care if they start a Nickelback cover band. You better be out in the crowd, singing along." It is silly and stupid and honestly, very insulting to Nickelback, but it stuck with me. I often see friends that try and tear each other down for their every move and think to myself, "those are not real friends." This year, I tried to take into account all of the richness that my friends add to my life. No, we may not agree on everything and we may not be able to make plans in less than seven hours, but the positives cancel out the negatives, and for that I am grateful.

This year, I thought about my family and what each member adds to my life and how they impact it. I'm thankful that my parents support me in everything I do, and I mean everything, as I know this is not the case for every child. I could walk up to them with a straight face and tell that I want to be an astronaut, and all they would say is, "Ok, when does training start?" I'm thankful to have parents that believe in me and do not doubt my future plans, no matter how scared we all might be for them. I'm thankful for my sister who is my best friend and continues to love me no matter how many times I yell at her for messing up our bathroom.

I'm thankful for getting to live my life in a way that allows me to experience everything it has to offer; love, heartbreak, friendship, hard work, unbelievable happiness, and days that feel like they're never going to end. It is such a crazy notion to be alive, to be able to read and write, form relationships, break them, get up in the morning and go to sleep in the same bed with the same sheets, cry and laugh in the same minute, and run free.

I have been taking all of this for granted for too long, and I am so deeply grateful that this year I turned that around. Thank you to everyone and everything that helped me reach this place, I don't intend on letting it go unnoticed.