Happy Thanksgiving :)

I can’t even begin to thank God and everyone around me for how amazing my life is. I am really and truly blessed. I wouldn’t be where I am without God so there is my first thank you.

I know I complain a lot. It’s not anything out of the ordinary, that’s what us teenagers do. But if you dig deep under all the whines and wishes, I really am very happy with life. I am such a privileged person. Just the fact that I’m typing this on a computer means I’m educated and decently rich, and that’s already better off than most of the people in the world.

A lot of the people I know don’t understand this, but I try to be as grateful as possible. Traveling around so much, I’ve seen a lot of the other side of life. Everywhere I’ve been its the same, whether that’s New York or Paris or India or Springfield. Walking down a street in Hyderabad, I’ve seen a multimillion dollar estate with servants and cooks and everything, and down the same street I’ll see a homeless woman begging for a piece of bread to get her and her little baby through the day. It makes my heart ache to think that this kind of contrast could exist. Do the people in that rich house ever think that by a little twist of fate, it could have been them out on the street? I live in one of those nice-ish houses when I’m in India. Every time we go, my grandfather and I buy loaves and loaves of Wonder Bread at the local market and hand them out to every poor person we see. I’ve had plenty of beggars touch the bread to their chest and say God Bless You to me. I hope just by this little act I’m helping out the world in the little way I can, giving back to the world that’s given me so much.

Closer to home, I’ve just got so much going on for me. As if it isn’t enough that I’m blessed with all the basic comforts of upper middle class life, I’m also incredibly lucky personally. I’m smart and righteous and I know just that will get me far in life. I also have the support of my family, who have never left my side, and my friends who will be there to help me through anything.  And just in general, at school and at home, I’m happy. I’m not hated or ridiculed and that is a lot more than other people can say. Like in that show If You Really Knew Me, there are real people I pass everyday in the halls that don’t even want to get up in the morning because they are mistreated by their own families and bullied at school. I am lucky enough to be loved everywhere I go. Obviously there will be those people in the world who don’t like me, whether for the person I am or the color of my skin or the beliefs I feel strongly about. But the great thing is that, I still believe there is more good in the world than bad. For every person who thinks I’m useless there will be more than one person who thinks I’m worthy. That’s what makes all the difference.

So thank you to my friends, for being there and loving me when I didn’t even love myself. My life has changed so much in the past few years and I am only just beginning to open my eyes to the value of friendship. I would not be the same if there wasn’t those who have loved me through the good and bad. I know who my real friends are and I never want to lose that bond that comes with years of love and tears and happiness.

Thank you to my family, who I’ve fought with and yelled at and loved with all my heart at the same time. Every teenager wishes their parents were cooler at one point or another, but when it comes down to it, I wouldn’t change a thing. I want my kids to feel this same love for the way I raise them, because I am grateful for all the values you have instilled in me since I was born. Not many can say they have lived a childhood that’s made such a great impact on the person I am today.

Thank you to anyone who has ever impacted my life. If you’ve hurt me, you’ve made me stronger. If you’ve loved me, you’ve made me happier. If you’ve just been a part of my life, you have given me experience.

Thank you for reading.

Happy Turkey Day everyone.