Being Thankful for Thanksgiving

 

      Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This is the month of midterms, cleaning the house for company and gorging ourselves with plenty of food! There are so many things to do and so little time to do them. It can seem to go on and on until finally, Thanksgiving day comes and everything just… stops. You get a whole day off to completely relax. Then, all of a sudden, it starts back up again and goes all the way until the New Year.

    Something I’ve noticed about myself is that sometimes I can get so caught up in what needs to be done that I can forget the entire point of Thanksgiving: being thankful. There is always so much to do, with Christmas coming up and the New Year on it’s way, it’s so easy to forget.

When the early pilgrims first came to America, they literally had nothing; no food, no clothes, poor health. They could have easily been angry and depressed, and they were for a while. But once they started finding food, they were thankful for what they had and not only did they share it amongst themselves, but also with the Indians. They were kind to each other and thankful for what they had. Even though they’d lost much in their long journey, they had a good attitude.

In high school, especially at this time of year, we can be so caught up in finishing our school work and other distractions that we forget the point of this season: the season to be thankful.

As the year starts to end and the new one comes in, I challenge everyone to be thankful for what they have, not only around Thanksgiving, but also throughout the new year.

Sometimes You Just Have To Work For It

The other day I read a quote by Thomas Edison that said, “The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually disguises itself as hard work”.

This got me thinking about how often we may pass up a perfectly good opportunity just because we don’t want do the work.

Think about it. The average kid makes about 3,000 decisions a day;trust me,I Googled it.

We make decisions both big and small, such as, when to do homework, what to wear and whether or not to obey our parents.

Sometimes our choices throughout the day will depend on what we “feel” like doing rather than what might be in our best interest.

Let’s say a friend asks you to take a medical class with them at a local college. Maybe you are tired and don't really feel like going.

Choosing to go despite how you feel could be the thing that sparks your interest in pursuing the medical field. It could be the difference in you becoming a doctor or not! You get new chances every single day to do or be something great.

However, even though good opportunities can come unexpectedly, socanbadones.

It is easy to choose laziness over hard work. Sometimes we sit down to play just one game and an hour later we realize that we haven’t even touched our math homework.

From there, the day spirals downward. We never seem to be able to get caught up, which results in not getting to do that fun thing I had been looking forward to.

As a high school homeschooler, you may be faced with many decisions.

With more responsibility comes more opportunity, but also more temptation.

My advice to you this week is to be careful about which choices to make and when make them.

Be aware of the offers that are thrown at you because you never know how they are going to change your life in the future. If something seems hard, it just might be worth the effort!

You can do anything, sometimes you just have to work for it.

 

 

The Blessings of Protection

The Beatles, I Love Lucy, A Wrinkle in Time; do you notice a common theme? Perhaps you think of popularity. Maybe, they remind you of American culture or even worldwide culture. There are countless themes that could go with these titles but one of the most common is the fact that they are considered classic entertainment.

Whenever I go to my grandparent’s house, we always watch the Twilight Zone, a tradition I’ve enjoyed since childhood. And it was my dad who introduced me to music of the 1980s. I’m pretty much surrounded by classics.  

Sometimes, entertainment, even “clean” classic entertainment, can cause strife in our homes. As homeschoolers, our parents are very protective of where we are, what we see, and what we do. One of those areas is entertainment. As we grow, we begin to realize that there are movies we’re not allowed to watch, music we’re not allowed to listen to and, yes, even books we’re not allowed to read! It can get really annoying, but sometimes we just have to take a step back and realize that there’s an entire world out there full of very good things, as well as very bad things. Our families are just trying to protect us from what’s out there. They know that one day we will be aware of all the good and the bad, they're just trying to reveal it to us slowly.

In our modern culture, we tend to feel like everything is about enjoyment; keeping ourselves happy and not bored. Yes, TV can be a nice break from a long day; just to sit down and not worry about anything. However, it's nice to have parents that are concerned with what we are filling our hearts with. I encourage you to take time out of your day and be grateful for all the things you're not allowed to do. Sometimes it's the things that seem the most annoying that turn out to be the biggest blessings.