When I was in high school, I was inspired by artsy bloggers who made websites their space to better the world. One of my favorites, Christine Castro, began a semi-weekly / monthly e-mail list where the only sendout was a list of Good Things. It inspired me! There was so much out there to enjoy and love if only we'd sit up and take note.

So in making this my own, I began crafting notes and collages to friends and boyfriends across the years, filled with my own kind of positivity: a list (visual or verbal or both) of good things. The above is one I made my junior year in high school to my first love.

There is such a power in this: gratitude and positivity allow you to stand up above your current situation, however trite, mundane, or aggravating it may appear to be, and choose the good. So along those lines, here are the things I've learned and experienced on Humanities Council for which I'm thankful:

1. Friendships with some pretty great people
2. Experiencing different leadership styles
3. That feeling of Getting Things Done
4. A deeper knowledge of the ins and outs of the University and College
5. Info on scholarships, internships, alumni connections, and enriching events
6. Developing power point presentation skills
7. Developing presentation skills, period
8. A great collared shirt...

This may be a little random, but I'd like to end with one of my favorite poems on gratitude by e. e. cummings:

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and love and wings; and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any – lifted from the no
of all nothing – human merely being
doubt imaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake
and now the eyes of my eyes are opened)