On Things to be Thankful For

If you’re reading this, thank you! And also, happy New Year! I’m currently sitting in the year 2023 while you’re way out there in the brilliant sparkling future of 2024. I thought about skipping this week and taking a break for my 3rd anniversary but that wasn’t really in the spirit of what I do here, so instead of breaking precedent by not putting out an essay, I thought I’d break precedent by not talking about how shitty something is. In fact, I’m going to spend this entire essay, talking about things I’ve been thankful for over the past year… so nurse that hangover, kick up your feet, and look back before looking forward.

2023 was a pretty wild year but part of being in my 30s is realizing that basically every year is pretty wild in one way or another. My 2023 started with a lot of things to be thankful for. I’m thankful for my friends who got married this year, in particular Jason and Irina. If you told me five years ago that I’d have gone to Brooklyn in February and walked through the most Russian/Jewish neighborhood I’ve ever been to, in -5 degree wind-chill in a tuxedo, I would have asked what bookie I owed thousands of dollars to. Instead, I got to go to one of the most fun, raucous, jubilant weddings of my life…and I even got to give a little speech and tell a few jokes! So, I’m thankful for friends and I’m thankful for their love.

I’m thankful for family, every year, but this year in particular. Going to Wisconsin to visit my grandma for her 100^th birthday was one of the most special things I’ve ever been a part of and I’m thankful for her resilience, her unflinching positivity, and the love she radiates. Seeing how many lives she has touched and how far people would travel to see her shows that if you treat people with kindness and respect (and make the best chocolate chip cookies the world has ever tasted) there’s no length people won’t go for you.

I’m thankful for my health and those who have helped me work towards it. As my readers know, I’ve struggled with back problems for years and the end of 2022 and beginning of 2023 was an especially tough time for me. The rest of 2023 however, was a welcome relief. With the help of a wonderful physical therapist (if you have any nagging things…go see a PT! Your insurance should cover it and you’ll thank me later) and the support of my friends and family, I had my healthiest few months in quite some time. All I have to do is keep working and hopefully, I’ll have many more ahead of me.

Lastly, but certainly not leastly, I’m thankful for my wonderful fiancé Cecilia who gave me the greatest gift I’ve ever been given by agreeing to marry me. We’ve been together for more than six years now, through elections, insurrections, pandemics, bedbugs, termites, existential crises, and more but she’s always been there for me and it’s never a bad day to tell her I’m thankful for her and all the things she brings into my life.

So, if I can leave you with one thing to think about during these times when things can seem so dark and so many things can feel wrong and unjust, it’s to take a break (for your sanity and mine) and think about all the things and people you’re thankful for. And then feel free to get mad again because there’s work to be done and complaints to be made!

Happy New Year, thanks for 3 years of reading. I love you all <3