When faced with the question, "What Are You Thankful For?” I was stumped. I had a mental list made up of the things typically on everyone's list: love, laughter, friends, family, shelter, money, etc. While those were all adequate answers to the question, I wanted mine to be an important topic yet also one that doesn't typically get its well deserved credit.

The idea for the topic I chose this week came from volunteering. Weekly I volunteer at a local hospital. There are a lot of people with life threatening or life altering health issues. A surprising amount of patients need assistance going to the bathroom or walking. Being immersed in an atmosphere like that has made me take a step back and realize how grateful I am that I'm able to do simple things like walking without help. An additional thing I'm thankful for is that I don't have to live in pain like many of the patients at the hospital.

I'm thankful for life.

It seems ludicrous that life can be so easily forgotten as life is the reason we're all here. Please, take a moment to reflect with me about everything life gives us, but also what it has to offer. Life is the reason that we wake up every day. Life keeps us breathing. Life keeps our hearts pumping. Life is the reason we can blink, hear, see, touch, smell, taste and talk. These are things we automatically have when we're brought into this World. Things we carry with us from the day we are born to the day we die. Unfortunately, there are people who aren't blessed with the ability to see, hear, talk, etc. Imagine how difficult it would be to live without the gift of sight, or hearing. I take things that are seemingly involuntary to me such as sight for granted when in reality I'm lucky to have all my senses in tact. There are many things that life has to offer: passion; happiness; love; knowledge; experiences; developing and finding your place in the World.

The struggle is discovering everything life offers. Finding just one of these things automatically makes you and your life unique from everyone else's. No one has the same experiences as you. No one learns or grows from an experience the same way you do. The things that make you happy are completely different from what makes someone else happy.

So be thankful that life gives you the opportunity to make you unique. Be thankful life allows you to lead a life fine-tuned to your interests and passions. Be thankful that life wakes you up every morning, keeps you breathing in and out. Be thankful that you were gifted with all five senses. Be thankful that your lungs and heart can function without a dangerous surgery or a machine. But most of all be thankful that life allows you to lead a life of purpose.