Hooray! We've all survived the first week of school! That's always a good sign. I hope your semester is looking like it will be as good as I think mine will. I'm taking three classes that I am absolutely enamoured with the material.

Seriously, I am a gigantic nerd.

But I should get to the point of the article. I was thinking about the song "Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep" (Bing Crosby sings it in the movie White Christmas). So I decided to write an article about some blessings I'm grateful for that come with the beginning of the semester. Sure, I'll be doing homework practically nonstop until December, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of good things about school!

I feel like it's easy to forget what school is like during the summer. This is what happens to me anyway. It always takes me a bit of time to get back in the swing of things, even though I knew what changes were coming. But there's nothing wrong with that. It takes a little time to adapt to any kind of changes. And at the very least, school definitely changes your schedule.

There's one particular change I'm very grateful for. I get to see many of my friends on a regular basis and it's so nice to have that again! I don't get to see many people during the summer sometimes, but once school starts up again, I run into familiar faces almost constantly. I love to see people I know. Even just a passing hello as we each walk to our classes makes me smile. I'm definitely excited to have that back.

Sometimes I think I forget how much I love to learn new things. It's largely why I've always loved school. There are so may fascinating things out there to learn about! Unfortunately I can't learn everything there is to know in my lifetime, but I intend to keep learning all my life.

Sometimes walking to all your classes can be tiring and time consuming, but I've actually really come to enjoy it. I especially savor the walk from my car to my first class of the day. It's usually fairly quiet on campus, since not too many people like early morning classes. I get to enjoy nature and a peaceful walk before my classes commence. I've even walked around the campus just for pleasure sometimes.

That's really just a few of the things I'm grateful for. I couldn't list them all since the article would be far too long if I did. Just like Bing says in the song, it really is important to count your blessings. You might find you have more of them than you'd thought.

I hope your semester continues to go well! That's all for now!