Giving Thanks

I've got so many things to be thankful for. But one thing that I'm going to say I'm thankful for that may shock you is this: I am thankful for the copious amounts of stress in my life. You're probably saying to yourself "Kels, I think you're delirious from all that food you ate. Probs should wait to do this post when you are making a bit more sense." But I'm serious. I'm thankful for my stress, and let me tell you why.

* Being a first year teacher with a very full schedule and lots of cute little kiddos
- I've got a job, a job teaching something that I'm passionate about. And yes, my schedule is very full, and sometimes (more often than not) I get very overwhelmed, but I landed a good paying job in a good district right out of college. Definitely something to be thankful for. And the cute little faces I get to see everyday are definitely an added bonus.

* Not feeling like I have enough money to pay all my bills, eat, and have some fun on occasion
- I have a place to live. I have cable and internet, a smartphone. I just bought a brand new (literally, brand new) car a month ago. I always have food to eat. I might not get to buy as many "fun" things as I used to, but I still manage to go out every now and then and buy things that my dear mother would classify as "wants" instead of "needs."

* Missing some of my friends so much that it's like a piece of my heart is just MIA
- This one is hard. I used to see my best friends every single day, and now weeks go by without even having a conversation with them. I'm going to turn to the wisdom of One Tree Hill for this one:

As hard as it is to not see my friends or talk to them everyday like we used to (let's be honest, I can't stay up until 3 in the morning driving around anymore, because I'm on teacher time. Although, there have been some late mornings since I started teaching, but that's a story for another day,) it makes the times we do talk and see each other that much greater. Even if we are just making stupid jokes about our egos that nobody would find funny except us.


Anyone close to me will tell you that I don't handle stress well. And it's true. I don't. I stress eat, I don't sleep, I cry so much that my eyes are just now permanently puffy. But when you step back and look at the stress from a different angle, they really are stresses to be thankful for. I'll be much more thankful when some of them aren't as stressful, that's for sure, but being a recently graduated 22 year old, I can't complain too much about where my life is right now.

Easy come, easy go.

People come, and people go. A simple, true statement about everybody's life. Not everyone you meet is going to stay around forever. But sometimes if you are lucky enough, you get quite a few people who come into your life, and don't go. That's not always to say that their presence in your life won't have it's difficulties. There will arguments, there will be fights, there will be moments when you say the words "I wish I'd never met you," knowing full well that you don't mean that. There might be times when you don't talk for awhile- whether it's because you're having a disagreement, you had a stupid fight about stupid petty stuff, or you're both just really busy and although talking to them remains a priority, things like sleep and work and eating override that. Long-lasting friendships like this aren't easy, in fact they are EXTREMELY hard work. But it's the moments where you're drunk at a bar screaming about getting some "mother-effing chicken fries" and your best friend finally complies (after helping your drunk self down a couple flights of VERY steep stairs) that make all that hard work worth it. Moments when you miss your turn into town and end up taking the scenic route home, and pass the corner where we sat parked for 10 minutes because I was stubborn and wouldn't say which direction to turn. Memories that you'll never forget (and some memories that you can't really remember.) It's in those moments that the hard work of keeping up a long-lasting friendship is worth it. Sometimes, the effort of these relationships gets to you, and you just want to throw in the towel because it doesn't really seem like its's worth it. But you talk yourself out of it because you know you'd be 40 times more miserable without them in your life at all,  than you are with the arrangement that isn't perfect but doesn't completely suck. And we don't get to talk as much as we want, and we don't get to see each other as much as we want, but when I need them, they're always there for me. And I hope they know that the same goes for them.