Thankful & THRIVING

This year, more than ever, I am so thankful to have a family and friends that I miss so dearly. I’ve always been so aware of how lucky I am to be so close to my family and be able to spend every holiday together. Now that that’s not the case, I am even more grateful.

Honestly, it’s hard not being at home. This voyage has been the most amazing thing and I haven’t really missed home or anybody that much.It might sound bad, but I love being here doing something completely my own without many ties to what I am used to. Today is the first time I’ve felt even the slightest twinge of missing home. I love Thanksgiving and Black Friday and fall and being around my family this time of year. Once for my birthday, in August, I asked if we could just eat Thanksgiving food and hang out, if that’s any indication of my fondness of the holiday.

Realizing that I have so many little things to miss is a blessing in itself, really. It’s also incredible to have spent the day with all my friends and have dinner together and eat too much as usual.

I’m thankful to have met friends on this ship that have turned into family, which sounds so cliché but could not be more true. Never in  my life have I been so close to so many people in a single group and it has been the absolute best. Shout out to Hanna, Jenna, Sabrina, Dragosh, Kelsey,Sierra, and Lauren for becoming some of the most important people in the world to me.

I’ve been planning on doing a blog about them so people know who I am talking about when I mention their names, and I’m hoping I’ll get there super soon.

I’m thankful to have the opportunity to travel. Not just here, not just now, but for my whole life. I grew up going on trips to Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon and the Florida Keys. I got to go to Europe at 15 and again as a graduation trip. I’ve seen so many things, even in the last three months, that most people will literally never experience. It is so hard to put into words the amount of insane gratitude I feel every single day.

I wake up happy to be here and I spend my days happy to be here and I go to sleep still happy to be here. I have to remind myself nearly every day of where I am and what I’m doing because of how fast paced this has all been. That is so freaking amazing, the feeling of needing to pinch yourself awake multiple times a day because this most certainly cannot be real life.

But it is. I am here and I am literally living my wildest dreams. For that I am so thankful to my parents and grandparents and Aunts and Uncles and brother and friends and every single person in my life who has helped me to become someone who is able to be doing this sort of thing.

Semester at Sea has changed my world for the better and I am so, so, so thankful for that as much as everything else. I know that I will not be the same person that left the CMH airport with a couple bags following an overwhelming need for adventure, and that is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.