Day 2: TTTF Monday and the Crane Machine

Hi! This is probably the first actual post by me on this blog, since yesterday was really just an introduction and all of that necessary stuff.

Every Monday, I've decided that I'm going to have “Three Things I'm Thankful For,” aka the TTTF feature. I think that it's incredibly important to remind myself of the many things that I am thankful for, especially when I'm in a crummy mood and am under the impression that everything is terrible and gloomy. (Which, by the way, is never true.) So, without further ado, here are three things that I'm thankful for.

Friendship/Friends

Need I say more? Since we're at the beginning of a new year, I've been thinking a lot about the year 2011. It was an year that saw me undergo a mass transformation of personality. Though I've always been an ultra-shy introvert, I broke out of my shell and learned who I really was in light of Good News. I've done things that I've never done before. And it would have never have happened if I didn't have friends who pushed, pulled, and poked me into taking risks, taught me about life, and convinced me to do crazy things. They have all supported and inspired me. I could name names to every person both online and in person who has been there for me and listened to me, but it would span twenty pages. Friendship is such a beautiful thing, and I'm so thankful for it.

Water

People living in first-world countries can just turn on their taps and get fresh clean water to drink and bathe with. (Well, unless you have sulfur in your water; in which a quick trip to the grocery store can yield many bottles or containers of water.) This is something that can be easily taken granted for in America. Many people in places like Africa don't even have clean drinking water for the purposes aforementioned. It's really sad to think about, since water is even more important than food to sustain life. So I'm thankful that I can get water whenever I'm thirsty. It's something I usually don't think about, but it is really something to be grateful for.

Mistakes

This is a weird one to even think about listing, but I think it's important to acknowledge that without mistakes, we wouldn't grow as people. A child isn't going to know that a stove is hot unless they try to touch it first. Then – ouch – they know it's hot and that it will burn them! A mistake ultimately teaches us something about ourselves – a character flaw, an emotion that we buried deep under the surface, or a habit that we know we should break. And gosh, I'm thankful for that!

In other news, today I went shopping at the grocery store with my sister. I played the crane game that they have in the lobby of the store and got two stuffed animals with one dollar! (Okay, so I put a dollar in before and didn't win anything. Still.)  I'm probably going to donate them to charity, maybe the Salvation Army or somewhere else. I get more of a thrill out of actually winning at the crane machine than actually getting the prizes. I already have quite a few stuffed animals of my own.

Here's the first one that I won - it's a hippo! :)  The photo quality isn't quite what I'd like it to be - I only have my flip-top phone which takes pretty blurry photos.  But it works.

Here's the second one - a pink piggy!  My sister kind of wants it, but I don't know if she'll have room to take it with her back to college.  We'll see.

For some reason I'm just very happy today.  It's supposed to snow, too! (By this time in upstate New York, we usually have snow, even if it's a little bit).  I'm excited.