Obligatory but oh so Grateful Thanksgiving Blog Post
Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks for what we have and those we love. How can you not love a holiday that is centered around love and thankfulness.
I'm not really a gift person so if given the choice between Christmas and Thanksgiving I'll take Thanksgiving. I love when my big, loud and crazy family gets together to eat and simply have a good time together. Laughter is one of the best medicines and with my family it is nothing but laughing, cracking jokes, going on adventurous walks and dancing in the kitchen while we all clean. Such good times to be had.
There can also be a lot of stress during the holidays and if like me you have to battle a mental illness on a daily basis, the good and happy always comes with some bad. Eating in public and eating in from of people I don't know super well is difficult. I'm constantly worrying if it looks like I'm eating too much or too little. Am I eating in a polite way? Is it grossing people out? Do these people think I'm fat because I'm getting a second serving of mashed potatoes? But I love mashed potatoes.......ughghg. And on and on and on. These aren't crippling thoughts for me right now, but they totally used to be. My first thanksgiving after my last relapse (I am recovered from anorexia) was so tough. I stayed with only my family. Helping with the cooking actually helped a lot. But now I am able to go out of town and spend thanksgiving with my boyfriends family and be totally fine. This is so huge for me and it has taken so much mental strength to get to this point in my recovery. So I am grateful for my health this year. This is always on my thankful list at thanksgiving but I'm especially proud and thankful for it this year.
Friends are another thing I’m especially grateful for. “The family that you get to choose” as a dear friend once said. From going to Boston with my lovely ladies to being in a musical and making new friends it’s been a year for friendship. Keeping in contact with friends from afar, running into dear friends on the street, watching friends get married and become parents and making time to see friends that live nearby. My friends are my cheerleaders and my comfort and I don’t know what I’d do without them.
I'm not really a gift person so if given the choice between Christmas and Thanksgiving I'll take Thanksgiving. I love when my big, loud and crazy family gets together to eat and simply have a good time together. Laughter is one of the best medicines and with my family it is nothing but laughing, cracking jokes, going on adventurous walks and dancing in the kitchen while we all clean. Such good times to be had.
There can also be a lot of stress during the holidays and if like me you have to battle a mental illness on a daily basis, the good and happy always comes with some bad. Eating in public and eating in from of people I don't know super well is difficult. I'm constantly worrying if it looks like I'm eating too much or too little. Am I eating in a polite way? Is it grossing people out? Do these people think I'm fat because I'm getting a second serving of mashed potatoes? But I love mashed potatoes.......ughghg. And on and on and on. These aren't crippling thoughts for me right now, but they totally used to be. My first thanksgiving after my last relapse (I am recovered from anorexia) was so tough. I stayed with only my family. Helping with the cooking actually helped a lot. But now I am able to go out of town and spend thanksgiving with my boyfriends family and be totally fine. This is so huge for me and it has taken so much mental strength to get to this point in my recovery. So I am grateful for my health this year. This is always on my thankful list at thanksgiving but I'm especially proud and thankful for it this year.
Friends are another thing I’m especially grateful for. “The family that you get to choose” as a dear friend once said. From going to Boston with my lovely ladies to being in a musical and making new friends it’s been a year for friendship. Keeping in contact with friends from afar, running into dear friends on the street, watching friends get married and become parents and making time to see friends that live nearby. My friends are my cheerleaders and my comfort and I don’t know what I’d do without them.
This year I am also grateful for my career. I am beyond blessed to get to meet new people and help them feel as beautiful as they deserve to feel. I am a curly hair specialist and I get to help people that have struggled and fought their hair most of their lives. There are people that have had to go through hormonal changes be it menopause, pregnancy or cancer and it has left them with curly hair they’ve never had to deal with before. I feel so lucky to be able to touch peoples lives in this seemingly insignificant way. So yeah, very grateful for my job and the beautiful people I got to meet and work with everyday.
And last but most definitely not least I am beyond grateful for family. Unlike our friends we don’t get to pick our family but that makes them all the more special. Family are your friends for life no matter what. These are the people that know the truest you and you get to be completely comfortable with them. I love my loud, expressive and talented family and I can’t wait to celebrate the holidays with them.
Happy thanksgiving and thanks for reading!
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