The Beginning

Multiple recent events fueled this fire.

It started when I noticed this one girl I am friends with on Facebook had been posting something she was thankful for every day. It could be something grandiose and poignant or it could be small and seemingly unimportant. Either way, she had been making it a point to post it on her status and would always add the hashtag of #365daysofthankfulness. I would have commented on what an awesome idea that is, but it's probably time that I mention that I was her neighbor in college for about 3 months and haven't seen her for at least 5 years. To be honest, I probably haven't thought about her in around 5 years either (that's awful, I know). But she began popping up on my Facebook Newsfeed daily.

This weekend, I was with some of my best friends in the world at Kristen's wedding. Alli and I were running late for pictures right before the ceremony. Her car's AC broke, so we were sweating profusely as we raced around Florence traffic trying to make it to the church on time. Really, we were all around a jambly, hot, sweaty, gross mess. As we bolted into the church, we discovered that our tardiness didn't matter and we needed to regroup. Alli stopped and very calmly stated "Okay. Let's talk about what's going on right now and what we're thankful for at this moment." So we did. One of our best friends was getting married in an hour, we were able to be with people we love and were about to be a part of one of the most important days in Kristen's life. Amazing how stopping and taking a step back puts things into perspective.

About a week ago, my boyfriend left for a summer program in Italy. His departure caused me to be an unnecessary crybaby surprisingly emotional. He's gone for a month and has virtually no internet access. It's been strange not having him a text or a phone call away. I talked to my mom about it last night, and she told me to use this time to focus on me. This makes it sound like I'm overly wrapped up in him in my normal life - I swear I'm not. I'm openly jealous of his activities since he's frolicking around Italy and I'm in North Carolina waiting tables. So I'll follow her wise advice and focus on me - I will work hard and save money, I will read all the books I've been wanting to read, I will work on being tan, I will find a new apartment, I will organize this opera scenes program, I will teach voice lessons, I will visit home, I will email my friends back (I've been really bad about that one), I will eat healthier, I will exercise in my spare time, I will do more yoga. And most importantly, I will begin to be more thankful.

I had originally considered resurrecting my old blog and just using that, but my posts were from years ago when I was just too depressed. So, here we are at a new time in my life with a fresh start.

(#1) 6/6/2011 - I am thankful that I was able to spend the most amazing weekend with some of my best friends in South Carolina and sing in Kristen's wedding.