I am huge on gratitude.

I mean really, really big on it.

I read somewhere once that it is one of the things in life that make us most happy. Naturally, I had to test this out. My senior year of high school, back when I would have sworn I was on the path to becoming an educator, I really wanted to thank some of my teachers for the impact they made on my last semester. I sat down for a few nights in a row before my last day of class and I wrote in my big loopy handwriting on these tiny pink thank you cards a few lines of gratitude for what these teachers had given me. I realized at the end of my little pile of envelopes that I appreciated all of them for different reasons. I wanted to one day encompass all of their best qualities, I wanted to somehow embody all of the positive things I found in their teaching. It’s not that I thought these teachers were without flaw. Simply put, they just had traits that I really liked. There were things about them I wanted to strive for when it came time for me to step into their shoes. They were funny, intelligent, caring. They made that difference for me. I realize now that I’ve been surrounded by teachers all this time. There are so many senior year teachers of my life. They aren’t perfect but they have these things about them that I love. They possess these characteristics that I want to strive for. So, here’s to you, reading this. To those people in my life that have some pretty bright and shiny parts to them. You make me want to be better.

I think this is the way to look at all the people in your life. This is whether you’ve come to like them or not, if they’re still around or just someone you bump into now and again. It’s important to take away whatever big or small piece of them that you can and highlight it. Be grateful you were exposed to someone so determined, so outgoing, or so headstrong. Be forever thankful that perhaps they showed you how not to be, or what you should be more of. Think about the times they took a moment out of their day to ask how you were and how that made you feel. Think about how you want to project those same warm and fuzzies to other people in your life or to a stranger or that one waiter you always get. Think about that time you got cut off on the highway and then don’t cut people off. Think about the last argument you had and how it made you feel, or maybe what you would have done differently with that person. Take more time to listen, to be more patient. My life is short and for the time that I am lucky to be afforded I want to leave the lives I have touched a little lighter. I want to impart on someone what so many of the people I know have imparted on me. If I never get to cure cancer, if I never find an easier way for righties to paint their right hand, I at least want to try my very best to make some sort of positive impact on the people I know, no matter how big or small. One of the ways I’ve figured out I can do this is through channeling those tiny pink cards. It’s by, once the opportunity strikes, letting those people in your life know that they totally rock your socks. They are truly knees belonging to bees, real creams of the best crops. Thanks for being who you are. Thanks for inspiring me to be better all the time. Thanks for never changing a single thing.