My parents always encouraged me to count my blessings. I was always reminded that Thanksgiving was a time to be thankful. My teachers use to create crafts that were representative of the holiday. Remember the infamous hand outline that made a turkey of your own? As the years passed on, crafts became lists. Teachers told me to write down specifically what I am thankful for. While we have always been reminded be thankful, now, as a college student, my blessings and the things I am most thankful for are a lot different. My list has significantly shortened, but I am more thankful than ever before.

Here's the difference.

When I was younger, I was thankful for a whole lot. In class, I discovered that the kid with the longest list was always seen as the most grateful or the one with the biggest heart. I made my list long. I was thankful for my friends and family, but I was also thankful for stuff that doesn't really reflect on me as a person like pizza, chocolate, my electronics, or even my toys. Yes, it was easy to make the list long at the time. I truly was grateful for pizza because I thought it was good, and I was thankful for my TV because it allowed me an escape from reality. I was just a kid who was told to be thankful. I was just a kid who was encouraged to have a long list of things to give thanks for. I was just a kid who endlessly added items and people to my list that only mattered at the time, but never as a long term influence in my life.

Now, I am a college student. I am not thankful for pizza because pizza makes you fat. I am not thankful for TV because it distracts me from studying and getting a great education. I am not thankful for friends of the past who didn't make it to see the adult version of me. My list is short and concise. No third grade teacher would show my list as an example to her class of a good kid who is grateful and compassionate, but my list has truth. My list is real. As a college student, I am thankful for time management, something no elementary school teacher encouraged me to be thankful for. I am thankful for my family, because they are the long term people in my life who support, guide and influence who I am not just one day out of the year or one year out of all my years, but every moment of my life. I am thankful for my friends who are still in constant communication with me, despite the distance separating us. I am thankful for happiness. The happiness I get from relationships, an A on my exam and the nights I get to be social and soak in the college experience.

Nineteen years later and I am more thankful than ever before. Even though my list is shorter, my list speaks volumes. I am not thankful for the materialistic items or the short term people and places. I am here for the long run, and that's why the people, places and things on my list have made the long run so worthwhile. I am a college student going home to celebrate what I am thankful for, and I am so excited to share that gratitude with the people that matter far beyond my list.