The fourth Thursday in November is approaching, and it's time to give thanks.

But first, let your memory take you back a few years, maybe five or six. I want you to see yourself at one of your Thanksgiving dinners with your family, sitting around a table full of delicious food and friendly smiles. You're all reminiscing on the past couple of months, exchanging stories about work and school, laughing at past family moments, and eating a gluttonous amount of food. Of course, no Thanksgiving dinner would be complete without everyone from the table saying what they are thankful for that year. Job promotions, passing grades, weight loss achievements, or even something as simple as being thankful for your crush finally asking you out-whatever the cause of your celebrations, there was always something great to be thankful for.

Fast forward to 2018, you are once again dieting in midst of your family's Thanksgiving feast-nothing has changed there-but when thinking about all the wonderful moments in the past year that you could be thankful for, there's one thought that you just seem to not be able to shake off.

"This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for not being a victim of a mass shooting. More importantly, I am so thankful that none of my loved ones have been caught in one either. Pass the corn, grandma." That seems about right, doesn't it? At least that is how I picture the majority of our Thanksgiving conversations playing out as. A typical Thanksgiving dinner, but with an added touch of the mass shooting extravaganza that is 2018. As depressing as this conversation might seem, it is, unfortunately, the reality that we have caught ourselves living in. Every time I hear that there was another mass shooting, my heart crushes in on itself, both in sheer sadness and in relief. Relief that somehow I was spared, and survived yet another day in 2018.

It is soul-wrenching, to think of all the lives-both young and old-that could not make it to this year's Thanksgiving. I cannot help but hurt for the parents who have to set one less place setting at the table. For the siblings who will never get to hear the voice of their brother or sister over Thanksgiving dinner. For the children of parents lost, who now have one less thing to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving used to be a positive day, filled with laughter and love, family and friends, putting an emphasis on what there is, and not what was lost. It might just be me, or you might also share in my viewpoint, but this Thanksgiving, when it's my turn to speak of all the wonderful things that have happened to me in the past year, and all that I am thankful for, I simply will not. I will not because, I am not thankful for my job, or my good grades this semester. This Thanksgiving, I say thanks to the universe for sparing me, and those close to me, from being unfortunate enough to be caught in a mass shooting.