Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I like the food of course, but mostly I like the fact that it’s about family and, as the name suggests, giving thanks. I have so much to be thankful for, and it’s far too easy to take those things for granted. I forget how blessed I am all the time. Thanksgiving is a good reminder of that, so, without further ado, here are some of the things I am most thankful for this year.

I am thankful for my family in general. They are all incredible. More specifically, I am thankful for my parents, because they taught me how to be a good person, showed me how to live a good life, and always support me in my attempts to do those things. They exemplify strength and virtue in everything they do, and I can only hope to be a fraction of what they are. And they buy me Sour Patch Kids for my birthday even though I’m an adult.

I’m thankful for my siblings. They are hilarious, smart, kind, and always there for me. I cannot imagine anyone better. They’ve been around my whole life, and I have no idea who I would be without them. Even if I am the only one out of the four of us that cannot sing, well, I can live with that.

I’m thankful for my friends because they’ve got my back no matter what happens. They put up with my quirks and weirdness without any sort of familial obligation. They tolerate my loud music and stupid jokes. Plus they like similar movies which is cool too.

I’m thankful for my dogs, because they’re cute and energetic and amazing. Everyone should be thankful for dogs, mine are just particularly great.

I’m thankful for my education. I’m super privileged to be able to attend the school that I do. I have great professors, great classes, and I know that I’m lucky to be there.

I’m thankful for my books, particularly my favorites, because they take to me to a place far away from reality. They make imagination and fantasy real, and they make heroic tasks and insane adventures seem possible. Also they provide a good distraction from schoolwork, so there’s that.

I’m thankful for good days, because they are a bright spot in a frequently dim world. They give me strength. And I’m thankful for bad days because they teach me how to be better, and remind me that there is a lot of work to be done. They make me stronger.

I’m thankful for my favorite Winnie-the-Pooh mug, because it’s giant and is capable of holding all sorts of delicious things. It also has cute cartoon characters on it, which is a bonus.

I’m thankful for post-it notes, because they’re awesome. They’re bright and colorful and they help me organize all the crazy things that are always happening. I don’t know who invented them, but that was genius.

By now you’re probably noticing a pattern. I’m thankful for a lot of things. A lot. Big, small, material, imaginary. I think it’s really easy to look at the world and see nothing but the bad. I do that a lot, particularly in my own life, so much so that it sometimes feels like I’ve been trained to do it. But I hate that. I refuse to accept it. The world has a lot of problems, sure, but there is so much good in it too. My life might feel like it is falling to pieces, but that doesn’t mean I have nothing to be thankful for. I have so much. If I had nothing but one of the things on this list, that would be enough to be grateful. But I have all of them, and so many more I didn’t even name. My family alone is more blessing than I could ever earn or deserve in a thousand lifetimes. Everything else is just a cherry on top.

So I’m thankful this year for everything good in my life, and there’s a lot of that. And I encourage you to make a list, mental or actual, of things you are thankful for, too. Not vague stuff but specific concrete instances of blessing in your life. It’s worth remembering how much you have going for you.