Blessed

Here it is, Thanksgiving day, and one can't help but think of how lucky/blessed they are to have everything in their life.  Sure, life isn't always perfect, and there's definitely people who seem to be better off than others.  However, when it comes down to it, the most important things in life are your faith, family, and friends.  All the other petty, material items we have really don't matter in the long run.  Well, I'm happy to say that I'm blessed to have all three: my faith, family, and friends.  These blessings are made increasingly apparent to me as I grow older and more mature.  I've grown into my faith so much over the past year and a half or so, which I'm so thankful for.  Coming home from college for vacation is always amazing, and having the love of my brother, sisters, and parents right there at my side is awesome.  Heck, it's always there, even when I'm a few hours away at school.  Then there's my friends, both old and new, from NY, PA, MD, Mexico, and God only knows where else.  I just can't help but acknowledge my blessings.  And to be completely honest, it's really all those special people I have in my life, those who I've formed relationships with, that are the things I'm most thankful for.  I've thought about this a lot lately - I've shared a lot of great moments lately with my friends at school; I have come home and reunited with friends from High School, and that's always so sweet; I just received a personalized video message from a boy I met and grew close to while working at Pronino orphanage in Honduras during Spring Break of '08; now tonight I talked to three different Mexican friends who I met while I was there this past summer.  Yep, there's no denying it.  I'm extremely blessed.  Blessed to have the loving family I do, blessed to be grounded in my faith, blessed to have such amazing and sincere friends (in what seems to be) all over the world.  What an incredible feeling to acknowledge all these blessings.