By Douglas Farra
Your Guide to Gratitude:
There is holiday cheer in the air and a need to find gratitude for the year. Figuring out how to be grateful seems to be challenging for some. The holiday experience can become busy and stressful with all the responsibility, family and “life” that people deal with. Here is your guide to finding gratitude for the season.
The first thing to do is eliminate all expectations of others. By doing this, people can find more time to give and enjoy each moment to its fullest potential. Expectations will always leave us disappointed and though we would like to see others live up to a certain potential, we can find more acceptance and peace in life when we eliminate this criteria. Spending time with family, friends, and even strangers should be the main focus of the season.
The second thing to do is make sure that the people around you feel special and more than that, know that they’re special. Brightening up another’s day can bring us to our enlightened state of gratitude almost faster than anything else.
Finally, in order to be grateful for the holiday, we need to love ourselves. If someone is not full of love then they have no love to give. This can directly tie into the expectations statement already mentioned. We cannot expect others to love us enough to fill our hearts, though that would be nice. Instead, we need to do loving things for ourselves in order to fill up. Once we are full, we can then start giving that love out to others.
The three suggestions mentioned here are traits everyone has and sometimes lose track of. Consider this a reminder to be the example by utilizing these traits. By doing so the holidays will be sure to bring you gratitude and peace.
Happy Thanksgiving!
By Ricardo Torres
It’s difficult expressing gratitude without taking a stab at the cliché. To be certain of what one has fully learned or experienced, in detail, it would take: courage, memory, and introspection.
I’ve been flooded by lots of realizations about my year: highs, lows, ups, and downs. It’s all about moving forward! The year 2012 has been full of surprises. This is the year I will recall as the one when things started happening, and when my initiative towards my future took off.
It’s not a Thanksgiving-day sentiment, but I’m grateful for: education and its everlasting lessons, family, friends and foes, soccer, intellectual and meaningful conversations, food, music production, Coyote Student News, my mentors, politics, literature, lack of free time, sarcasm, fitness, and sunsets and night skies. More importantly I’m grateful for the moments of: joy, pain, laughter, and just plain living.
By Fabiola Marzano
Every morning when I wake up, I thank God for another day. I have another opportunity to get on my feet and accomplish the things I ought to do.
I must admit there were days rougher than others, but I kept myself strong throughout those days.
My first appreciation goes to Granny and Grandpa for all the love they’ve giving me as a child. I am strong and independent thanks to my wonderful mother who raised me to keep my head held high. My motivation and drive are inherited by my hard-working father. He motivates me to go farther in life. If it weren’t for my two young siblings, I wouldn’t have learned how to be a mom. Those little angels are my joy! I am happy to have two older siblings as well. We are completely opposite, but family sticks together and I love them so much.
I believe I was very blessed when I met my two best friends. I can’t explain how much I appreciate them for being there when I needed them.
I also want to thank my college professors for shaping me into a sharp journalist. I can’t explain how much I’m falling in love with my major and future career.
To my colleagues who I shared laughs, unforgettable moments, and study sessions with, I say thank you for helping me get that A plus!
I am thankful for all the little things people did for me to get me where I am today. I can’t wait to see what life will bring.
By Li Han
This Thanksgiving will be one that is different from any Thanksgiving I ever had. My holiday will be bare and so will my plate, but the day will still remind me of the many things that I am thankful for.
For most, Thanksgiving is one of the most family-oriented holidays, so what I’m most thankful for is my family. There are many people that don’t have the opportunity to share this holiday with their families, and I am one of them.
With my mom and my younger siblings living out-of-state for almost six years and my dad moving away years ago, all I had left was my sister. Recently, my sister moved away with my niece and nephew— taking with her family gathering and early wake-ups on Christmas mornings. Therefore this Thanksgiving I will be spending it alone.
Most would be sad at holidays that emphasize family togetherness, but for me, it makes me thankful for everyone in my family. I am thankful that they are healthy, happy, and safe in the many places that they are. I am happy knowing that they have each other and will be able to share memories that they will be able to cherish forever.
This is the first holiday that I am not going to be around any family, but knowing that they have each other and will enjoy the true meaning of Thanksgiving puts me at ease.
This holiday is not only about family but the meal that is so very much anticipated. Cooks and their helpers spend hours upon hours preparing food for this one meal, but for me that does not have the same eager feeling that it once did.
I have become a vegan and for that reason the traditional comforting food that is prepared on Thanksgiving does not appeal to me. Foods that I used to love such as macaroni and cheese, which contains milk and cheese, or even apple pie, which has butter, do not interest me like they used to.
I would rather have my family and their unrestricted diets enjoy the food as well as the family on this joyous holiday. Being a vegan makes me realize that not only am I thankful for my family on Thanksgiving, I am also thankful for my health.
Even though my Thanksgiving will be lacking a lot of the traditional aspects that most experience, I am extremely thankful for everything that I have. I look at the brighter side of things. I have my family and my health, and that is more than I can ask for. I am truly thankful this time of year.
Coyote Student News at the College of Southern Nevada 