What I'm Grateful for this Year


What I'm Grateful For This Year


I'll try not to get too cheesy

The holiday season is here. As I write this, I've just arrived back in Chicago after spending Thanksgiving in Kansas City with my dad's extended family. In all effects, the 3-month cross-country road trip is finished. I've gone through a lot this year—some good, some not-so-good—but I've tried to reframe my mindset to savor the good and take the not-so-good in stride.

Yosemite National Park

I've been (relatively) open about my mental health on this blog in the past, but one practice I've found particularly helpful has been gratitude. I've kept 'gratitude entries' in my journal, in which I literally just list a bunch of stuff that I'm grateful for. It ranges from big things, like 'family support', to little/silly things, like 'whoever invented hammocks'. And to be honest, these entries are relatively infrequent—mostly when I'm bored or in a writing mood but don't have anything to write.

However infrequent, writing them always makes me feel good, and I've found myself thinking about gratitude or applying it to situations when I otherwise wouldn't have. In the spirit of the holiday season, I thought I'd share some of my favorites with you all. Most of these are verbatim as I wrote them at the time, but a few I've expanded on. 
A big ol' Redwood in California


  • My old job, which financed this trip
  • Whoever invented hammocks
  • The smell of pine trees
  • Thrift stores
  • Cozy sweaters and flannels
  • Lakes, canyons, forests, waterfalls, mountains
  • Looking forward to tomorrow
  • Animals
  • Yoga
  • Red lights on headlamps
  • Camping & everything that goes with it
  • All the awesome people that care about me
  • Music
  • Time, for the following
    • Ability to have a more leisurely paced trip
    • Calling & connecting with friends & family more than I have been
    • Reading & writing
  • The recent hard seltzer revival
  • Delicate Arch in Utah
    Warm socks & sweatpants
  • Everyone who let me crash with them
    • Alex, Ethan, Steven & Erin, Kellie, Monica & Eric, Natalie, Tony & Laura, Chris & Marci, Matt & Dina
  • Not having to WORK
  • Friendly strangers
  • Cooking
  • My new hydration bladder that delivers 30% MORE WATER PER SIP
  • Kendrick Lamar, Justin Vernon, Mac Miller, SZA, James Murphy
  • Mac Miller
  • Books
  • The White Sox clinching the AL Central
  • Podcasts
    • Special S/O to Dissect, Planet Money, The Solid Verbal, The Daily
  • Stars, which I can actually see for a change
  • Dope bike paths
  • Having pretty fantastic weather overall
  • My new cozy hat which doubles as an eye pillow
  • Mirror Lake at Yosemite
    Waking up early, voluntarily
  • All the different ecosystems and how unique each one is
  • Nature documentaries
  • Free camping
  • My tevas
  • My multi-function hiking stick
  • Oysters
  • Not knowing what day of the week it is
  • The OCEAN—which I get to see very soon
  • The smell of autumn
  • My parents, for providing financial support when things didn't go according to plan, and being there to help whenever I need
  • All the different cultures in the world
  • My older sister Caitlin (AKA Mrs. Zacariah), for coming to meet me in Utah and spend a week with the Mormons
  • My younger sister Anna, for worrying about my safety a little too much
Also, a little bonus of things I'm grateful to be back in society for:
  • College football & basketball
  • iCloud photo sharing
  • Our dog, Roscoe
  • My parents, again, for letting me live rent-free for an undisclosed length of time
  • Showers & beds
  • Couches
  • Board games
  • A full kitchen
  • My grandparents, for being sweet and caring
  • Not having to listen only to downloaded music
  • Thatcher Woods Forest Preserve, which isn't quite a national forest, but it's something
  • More variety of food
  • Not sleeping outside in winter
Dixie National Forest in Utah

Anyways, I hope all my loyal readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving and gained something(?) from this post. I've got more content coming down the pipe to wrap up this trip, and hopefully these will answer some of the questions I've been getting.
  • What's next for me?
  • National Park Power Rankings
  • Hard Seltzer Power Rankings
  • The very best things I did, and where I want to go back
  • Keep, Stop, Start: what I learned, and what I'm going to change, or not change
  • FAQ—if necessary

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