Write Back Weekend "Thank You. Thank You Very Much"
Happy Belated Thanksgiving! No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. This week's Tell It To Me Tuesday is being answered on a Friday. Since it's a holiday weekend I figured a holiday edition of TITMT could be posted now rather than waiting for Sunday. I make the rules after all. Plus Friday is technically part of the weekend, so there.
Since we're all in a thanking mood, I'd like to start off by publicly thanking The Academy Ajooja who was kind enough to nominate AOGB as Best Blog for the 2006 Weblog Awards. I have promoted the awards a few times in recent weeks on this blog. I hope Aooja, or anyone else for that matter, did not feel "blog pressured" into nominating this very site. I plugged the awards with the hopes you could show your thanks to any and all bloggers you loved. Nominations end today so there still might be a small window of opportunity if you have not "gotten your thanks on" yet.
For me, it's hard to give thanks in a post without coming across as cheesy, sappy or even redundant. Most of us who have been taught good manners say thank you numerous times during any given day. It's something we do automatically without thinking. It's also something I try very hard to instill in my students each year. For the most part, the kids are grateful, but you shouldn't have to assume someone is grateful since there are many simple ways to show gratitude more than just saying the words themselves.
For instance, each month I give out prizes from the prize box. I keep tabs on who says thank you after receiving their prize. I then make an example of those students and give them something a little extra, merely for having good manners. Because I work in an urban area, a lot of these kids are on the poor side, but don't know it yet. As a result, they receive a lot of gifts from the school, especially around holiday season. This ends up having a backlash effect. Suddenly the underprivileged act like the spoiled ones. It's weird, but it's true. Nothing gets my goat more then when a child complains about a gift they received for free. I always try to tell the children that there are people out there who will not receive new notebooks, pencils or gifts from their teachers or parents. To complain about the size, shape or color makes my blood boil.
But this post isn't really about my views on how or why to thank others, it's meant to be an introspective approach to who (or what) I give thanks to on behalf of myself. If I'm being honest there are literally SO MANY things to be thankful for, both big and small. And while the little things are little, they definitely add up. If you read between the lines, you will see this is why I cleverly cheat a bit to get around the top five rule. So here, in no particular order, are what I am thankful for this year.
1. My Family- Cliche as it seems, it's impossible for me to make a list of what I am thankful for and not include my family. In many ways, they have made me what I am today. In my mind, family is a lot more than just the people who you are related to by blood. Maybe it's because I'm an only child, but to me family comes in different forms. I consider my friends and my boyfriend my family of choice. I also consider my blogging friends part of an extended family of sorts. Put it this way; if we all were sitting together at Thanksgiving dinner, my immediate family would be at the head of the table and I'd be surrounded by close, personal friends. My blogging friends would definitely be on the guest list though. They'd be on the fringe, almost like a glorified kiddy table of sorts.
2. Electronic Gadgetry- Sometimes I think about how different it was to live even 25 years ago. Take my computer for instance. Just as long as you don't actually take it because I don't know what I'd do without it! I can't imagine my world without email, blogging, gossip reading, online Googling, My Space reconnecting, etc.
But my computer is just one facet of the electronics that rock my world. There's my tv and vcr, of course. And just think, a few years ago all I knew was a life without Tivo. Go back a few years before than and I did not know the wonderful world of downloading. Now I no longer have to be at the mercy of the DJ on the radio, thanks to my handy, dandy mp3 player. Ahh, electronics. God only knows what I'd be without you.
3. My Job- Every year (especially around the summertime) I'm reminded how lucky I am to have found a good job in both the field of education AND in a day and age where good jobs are harder to come by. This occurs to me more in the summer because that is when all of the fresh faced graduates go pounding the pavement, trying to find that first big break. Sometimes I wish I could go back to that time and do it all over, but at the same time, I don't envy the road most of them have ahead of them. I'm also very thankful and proud to have the chance to have a positive impact on the lives of others. Sometimes I still can't believe I'm the "grown-up" in charge of twenty something people each day. If only they knew this girl still watches shows like Laguna Beach in her spare time.
4. Freedom- Most days I am proud to be an American, but you'd never know it if you judged solely by Saturday Night Live, "State of the Union" type mockery standards. There are many, many things fundamentally wrong with the great ol' USA, but still Americans are extremely fortunate individuals who for the most part, do not realize how good they have it, present company included. Being an American means we can speak without fear of being prosecuted against. Well, unless you're Mel Gibson or Michael Richards, that is. In some ways, some might argue we are spoiled with all the freedoms we have and in a way, that is true. But that doesn't mean we can't give thanks for the right to exercise our freedoms that we do have and cherish how precious they really are.
5. Sense of Humor- The older I get, the more I realize that having a sense of humor is essentially connected to so many other things in life. Humor contributes to health, peace of mind, sanity and even an ability to play well with others. There are many, many people who seem to walk through everyday life without the ability to laugh at themselves, or more importantly, laugh at everyone else. I couldn't imagine my life without wit, sarcasm and the opportunity to occasionally roll it all out in the written word here. So I guess in a way that also makes me thankful for you, too. Yes, YOU. Those of you who come back and see me time and time again without really knowing me that is. Talk about being just plain silly.
I know there are probably many great things to give thanks for that I have missed in writing this post and I apologize in advance for gross oversights that are really just unavoidable certainties.
In my defense, I blame it all on tryptophan.
Since we're all in a thanking mood, I'd like to start off by publicly thanking
For me, it's hard to give thanks in a post without coming across as cheesy, sappy or even redundant. Most of us who have been taught good manners say thank you numerous times during any given day. It's something we do automatically without thinking. It's also something I try very hard to instill in my students each year. For the most part, the kids are grateful, but you shouldn't have to assume someone is grateful since there are many simple ways to show gratitude more than just saying the words themselves.
For instance, each month I give out prizes from the prize box. I keep tabs on who says thank you after receiving their prize. I then make an example of those students and give them something a little extra, merely for having good manners. Because I work in an urban area, a lot of these kids are on the poor side, but don't know it yet. As a result, they receive a lot of gifts from the school, especially around holiday season. This ends up having a backlash effect. Suddenly the underprivileged act like the spoiled ones. It's weird, but it's true. Nothing gets my goat more then when a child complains about a gift they received for free. I always try to tell the children that there are people out there who will not receive new notebooks, pencils or gifts from their teachers or parents. To complain about the size, shape or color makes my blood boil.
But this post isn't really about my views on how or why to thank others, it's meant to be an introspective approach to who (or what) I give thanks to on behalf of myself. If I'm being honest there are literally SO MANY things to be thankful for, both big and small. And while the little things are little, they definitely add up. If you read between the lines, you will see this is why I cleverly cheat a bit to get around the top five rule. So here, in no particular order, are what I am thankful for this year.
1. My Family- Cliche as it seems, it's impossible for me to make a list of what I am thankful for and not include my family. In many ways, they have made me what I am today. In my mind, family is a lot more than just the people who you are related to by blood. Maybe it's because I'm an only child, but to me family comes in different forms. I consider my friends and my boyfriend my family of choice. I also consider my blogging friends part of an extended family of sorts. Put it this way; if we all were sitting together at Thanksgiving dinner, my immediate family would be at the head of the table and I'd be surrounded by close, personal friends. My blogging friends would definitely be on the guest list though. They'd be on the fringe, almost like a glorified kiddy table of sorts.
2. Electronic Gadgetry- Sometimes I think about how different it was to live even 25 years ago. Take my computer for instance. Just as long as you don't actually take it because I don't know what I'd do without it! I can't imagine my world without email, blogging, gossip reading, online Googling, My Space reconnecting, etc.
But my computer is just one facet of the electronics that rock my world. There's my tv and vcr, of course. And just think, a few years ago all I knew was a life without Tivo. Go back a few years before than and I did not know the wonderful world of downloading. Now I no longer have to be at the mercy of the DJ on the radio, thanks to my handy, dandy mp3 player. Ahh, electronics. God only knows what I'd be without you.
3. My Job- Every year (especially around the summertime) I'm reminded how lucky I am to have found a good job in both the field of education AND in a day and age where good jobs are harder to come by. This occurs to me more in the summer because that is when all of the fresh faced graduates go pounding the pavement, trying to find that first big break. Sometimes I wish I could go back to that time and do it all over, but at the same time, I don't envy the road most of them have ahead of them. I'm also very thankful and proud to have the chance to have a positive impact on the lives of others. Sometimes I still can't believe I'm the "grown-up" in charge of twenty something people each day. If only they knew this girl still watches shows like Laguna Beach in her spare time.
4. Freedom- Most days I am proud to be an American, but you'd never know it if you judged solely by Saturday Night Live, "State of the Union" type mockery standards. There are many, many things fundamentally wrong with the great ol' USA, but still Americans are extremely fortunate individuals who for the most part, do not realize how good they have it, present company included. Being an American means we can speak without fear of being prosecuted against. Well, unless you're Mel Gibson or Michael Richards, that is. In some ways, some might argue we are spoiled with all the freedoms we have and in a way, that is true. But that doesn't mean we can't give thanks for the right to exercise our freedoms that we do have and cherish how precious they really are.
5. Sense of Humor- The older I get, the more I realize that having a sense of humor is essentially connected to so many other things in life. Humor contributes to health, peace of mind, sanity and even an ability to play well with others. There are many, many people who seem to walk through everyday life without the ability to laugh at themselves, or more importantly, laugh at everyone else. I couldn't imagine my life without wit, sarcasm and the opportunity to occasionally roll it all out in the written word here. So I guess in a way that also makes me thankful for you, too. Yes, YOU. Those of you who come back and see me time and time again without really knowing me that is. Talk about being just plain silly.
I know there are probably many great things to give thanks for that I have missed in writing this post and I apologize in advance for gross oversights that are really just unavoidable certainties.
In my defense, I blame it all on tryptophan.
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