Give-Thanksing

     Thanksgiving is one of the oldest commonly practiced holidays and can be traced back to the Mesopotamian harvest festival, Akitu.  In North America it can be traced back to the Protestant Reformation.  In Canada the first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1578 by an explorer named Martin Frobisher.  He held his Thanksgiving in gratitude for surviving the long journey, not for the harvest.  In England, before 1536 there were 92 church holidays and 52 Sundays that people were required to go to church or take off work.  They often had to pay for expensive celebrations on these holidays with money they didn't have.  However, in 1536, during the reign of Henry VII, there was an English Reformation and the holidays were reduced to 27, but some puritans got rid of all of them, including Christmas and Easter.  With the holidays gone, the English set up days of fasting and days of feasting to please or repay God.
     Many different cultures and religions combined to get us where we are today, and we are still growing and evolving as a culture.  No matter what you believe in, Thanksgiving is a day to remind us of how much we have.  It is a day to get together with the people you love and feast on delicious food and fulfilling conversation.  It is a day to thank each other for being in our lives.  I hope all of you have a wonderful day full of feasting and comfort and happiness.     Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

Lazy Dayz

It's kind of ridiculous how much of my happiness is based on school.  The best days are the ones I have no homework.  I count down the days until breaks and weekends and drag myself out of bed on Mondays.  But this week, for Thanksgiving, I have the whole week off!!!
I keep remembering this at random parts of my day and I get happy all over again. 
And because of this whole open week ahead of me, today, instead of doing my homework and stressing about tomorrow, I got to sleep in and go surfing.
And so, at 2:30 in the afternoon on Novemeber 24, I was floating on my surfboard in the Pacific Ocean and appreciating just how good I have it.
I may not have the new iPhone or a laptop or the newest clothes, but everything I have is of extreme value to me, and the less I have the more I love those things.
Moving to Cali has taught me to take less value in material things and more value in memories and relationships. 
I know that when I grow up I want to be very mobile and able to leave at any second.  i want to be able to travel around without toting around a bunch of empty reminders of memories gone by.  I would love to just have a box of pictures i could take out and look at instead of having physical souveniers.     
But the problem with that is I'm not a big fan of taking pictures. :)

Sickening Cliches

I hate how, no matter how hard I try, everything I do has already been done by someone else.  Everything I feel has already been felt and everything I say has probably already been said.  I feel like such a repeat of everything before me.  What can I do that is truly unique?  What can I do that I'm the first person to do?  Is there anything left in the whole entire world that hasn't been done, made, or discovered?
        How can I truly be my own person?  Is there anything? Anything at all? 
        Lets make an example.
        Feelings.
        Whenever I tell someone I'm having a bad day they either say:
1)  "Teen angst, bro, it sucks."
2) "That time of month huh?"
3) "You want to talk about it?"
4) They say nothing, and only look at me like I need to get it together.
I just need someone who says,
"I feel you.  Here, beat me up if you need to."
That would honestly be amazing.
Cause if someone tells me I can beat them up, it's like they're giving me permission to do something, which I hate even more, so I'll beat them up even harder.
And then, I realize, after they are good and bruised, that my anger was a combination of all four of the above things and I am, in fact, just another angst-y teenager that wants to just talk about it and eat chocolate and watch chick flicks.
That fact makes me question my feelings.  Are they legit? Am I actually upset for any good reason? (Is there such a thing?)
Or are my feelings just the usual symptoms prescribed with each dosage of life?
I wish I had been warned of these annoying symptoms when I signed up for this whole deal.