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Wednesday, November 25, 2015

I'm thankful for weird stuff


I am thankful for my incredibly stressful job.

I pull my hair out and rant and rave about how much work I have and how hard it is to stay organized and how badly deadlines and waiting for others to do things sucks.  I look at other’s salaries and salivate.  I look around my office and wonder where my head’s at.  I walk to the printer or the front area and forget why I'm going there on the way. I stress on work when I'm home and wish I had a work laptop so that I could get more done.  I worry about stress in my office and the changes that are happening so quickly.
But I'm thankful I have a job and work with mostly awesome people (does anyone work with all awesome people?  If so, I want in!)  I am thankful I have a place to work and to stretch my brain.  I am thankful to feel challenged and trusted for my opinions by my peers.  I am thankful I get paid.
 
I am thankful I was a teen mom.

While my mom was always there to offer support and a roof over our heads, I was on government assistance for daycare and for food for myself and Matt.  I didn’t get to go out and party as often as my friends.  I never got to live on my own and find myself.  I was never on my own.  I always had someone whose life depended on my own.  I never had a chance to get up and go.  I never had the option to quit a job when I was unhappy.  While I may have acted like it at times, I didn’t have a time in my life when someone wasn’t learning from my actions.  I didn’t have a normal college experience and never got to live on campus.  Even after Jon and I got married, we needed Government assistance (housing) to care for our family.  Life was never easy.

But I'm thankful for Matt.  I'm thankful that he’s grown into a wonderful young man with a caring heart.  I'm thankful that he grew up with me and learned his love of music from me and Jon.  I'm thankful that he had his struggles with authority early and is over that shit.  I am thankful that I have a wider world view that contains struggle and that I can understand where many people are “coming from.”  I'm thankful that I know how to budget for many different situations and can help those in need.  I'm thankful that we no longer struggle (too hard) financially.  I’m thankful that we can afford our kids some of the good things in life (sad that we weren’t able to provide as much financially for Matt) but we are able to offer support as they all grow into capable young men. 

And I'm thankful they’ll al be over 18 (and maybe even out of the house) before I'm 50!

 

I am thankful for growing up with an alcoholic Step Father.

I would cry myself to sleep worried about the verbal abuse he’d heap on my mom.  I’d duck as they threw silverware at each other.  I held my mom when she kicked him out and I pled with her not to take him back.  I pulled him off my brother once and the cops were called to our house.  I smile sadly when we drive by that particular bar at the top of the hill between my dad’s house and my mom’s house because my step dad couldn’t even wait until we’d get back to the house between drinks and so we’d stop there and I’d play pinball while he’d have a beer.  I remember going to the hospital when he was in detox and watching a big orderly holding him down while he hallucinated.

But I'm thankful that I can spot addiction.  I'm thankful that, while he was an alcoholic, I can still be sad that he’d gone and miss his horrible sense of humor and dry chuckle.  I can be sad that my brother lost his dad and had to get married without his dad to be there or to meet any of his kids.  I'm thankful I have one more life experience to draw from when making decisions.

 

I am thankful for my whack job in-laws.

I won’t rant about anything specific here.

But I'm thankful that I’ve known them more than half my life.  I love that they love me and appreciate the parts of me that I bring to the family table.  I love that they’ve accepted me and all my faults and been there for me, giving me a hand up during difficult times.

 

Anyway, I'm thankful for my life.  Every crappy, difficult, challenging, sad, stupid moment of it. 
Stay tuned to the Mind Key blogspace to read about Thankfulness this week!

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