As I entered the mental-space of (academic) battle once again, I kept the promise of Thanksgiving Break in the back of my mind, allowing it to encourage me to put my best effort onto virtual paper. A couple more weeks, a couple more midterms, then I’ll finally be able to take a deep-breath and collect myself. Fall semester has a way of being a sprinted marathon– if you aren’t ready go in the first couple weeks, being caught up in the wake is a real possibility. A couple midterm cycles later and it’s Thanksgiving Break: a reprieve and convenient deadline all in one.

Motivation to do much more than required is minimal at best as Break creeps ever nigh. On its eve, I had my last due date and a wealth of procrastination to boot. But one thing kept me going: the promise of an extra day of break and what I could do with that extra day. Wrestling practice. If I could finish my final project early, I could be home in time to get up for an 8am practice at my old high school. Didn’t matter that I hadn’t woken up for an 8am-anything for almost a year. A guaranteed opportunity to stretch my wrestling legs was all I wanted, and finishing a project earlier-than-on-time was the way get that guarantee.

It’s not the same when you return to a place after a time away. The old mat-room has a way of changing with the times, but never too much from the way I left it. You gotta walk in every once in awhile and “make sure it’s still there,” as Gable says. I tend to do the same with my childhood home, on breaks like these.

I’m thankful for the four-walls that composed my temple in grappling, the four-walls that make up my apartment, and the many that make up my home. I’m thankful for the peace those walls bring me. I’m thankful for the institutions of learning that have provided me the avenues to grow intellectually, exponentially. I’m thankful for the people that have supported me in every way in my life. In their own ways, each of them adds to me. I am the product of many individuals’ (un)collective efforts. There are so many that I took (and take) for granted, simply because they aren’t the most prominent facets of my life (as I am not the most prominent in theirs). Humans have a way of doing that; if it’s not effecting your daily-life, it’s easy to minimize its role. For those that have given to me as much or as little as they have, thank you. I do not expect this forum to make up for 20 years of my naivety or youthful selfishness, but nonetheless know that I have taken great pride in making you all proud and I will continue to do so, in the hopes that it may be a start in repaying my great debt.