I'm thankful for food. I am just so thankful for food. Like mac & cheese, which will always hold an absurdly precious place in my heart. I am a voracious lover of eating and just cannot get over how wonderful everything tastes. I love the opportunity to try new things, to take on new experiences. I love how sharing a meal with another person brings me that much closer to them. Something about sitting together over food forges some kind of connection I can't explain. Meals give you the opportunity to stay in a fixed place and simply learn more about another person. You can live in the silences, fill every moment, find a healthy mix of both. Food gives you a constant excuse to go be with the people you love. It is a common, simple gesture that goes such a long way. Plus, food is delicious.

I'm thankful for the little sister who goes out of her way to call me when she has a free moment, who laughs at each and every stupid joke and face I throw at her over FaceTime, who keeps me updated on her life and listens to mine, who will not hesitate to cut anyone who crosses me, who loves me for who I am, no strings attached. I love watching her be exactly who she is, every strong-willed moment, every stroke of genius, every random hobby, every new passion. I'm thankful for the little sister who sends me smiley faces over text of various shapes and sizes in the hopes that it'll make me smile, the one who sends texts in all caps and with a bajillion exclamation points tacked on because she's excited I'll be home for the holiday season.

I love the way she reminds me that to showcase your passions is to risk yourself for the world, and the payoff will bring more joy than you could ever imagine through the simple act of connection. I'm thankful for the older brother who is always there to offer me advice. I love the way he constantly tries to offer me his take on the issues I bring up to him to talk about. He has been through so many of the struggles I'm facing, and he will constantly go out of his way to make sure I know how to handle them in the best possible way. I'm thankful for siblings.

I thankful for getting kicked out of a required attendance event because my beautiful friends conferred with one another over a brutally sick me, decided definitively that I had a fever, and force me to go back to sleep. I love having people around me who are willing to take care of me so actively, who refuse to let me forget that I have people in my life, too good of people, who love me for the absurd mess that I am and always will be. I love knowing that even when I am at my worst, the people I love are always at their best and are relentlessly willing to help me in any way they possibly can. I never want the kindness they show to me to be taken for granted. I would truly be nowhere without the way they care.

I'm thankful for one on one moments with the people I love. I'm thankful for the chance to sit down with one other person and talk to them about how their life is, about what they find to be their current passion or their biggest issue or their anything. I like groups, I can like crowds, but I love the chance to just be with another person and hear from just them. Something about building a relationship with another person one on one is positively priceless.

I'm thankful for my parents. I would write more, but I will never have the words to thank them enough. They are some of the most amazing people I have ever known, and I know for a fact that I am one of the luckiest kids on earth to have them. Truly I am, and I always will be.

I'm thankful for the chance to write. I know that there isn't always time, there isn't always brain power, there isn't always an opportunity. But I'm thankful that I can write at all. I'm thankful that I have a way of expressing the mountain of things that are on my mind, I'm thankful for the chance to practice this art that I love, hone my skills as best I can, and keep on starting from scratch. I'm thankful for the ways I can use writing to connect to the world around me, to drag me out of my little introvert bubble just for a bit so that I can find the lasting relationships that make life worthwhile.

I'm thankful to have a passion like this. I'm thankful for the people who indulge this passion, who will read my works, who will support me despite this not being their favorite thing. I am thankful for the chance and ability to write. I hope to serve others with it to the best of my abilities as time races steadily on.