Thanks

I am grateful beyond words for all of your kind words. Especially after I realized I'd been counting a 600+word segment twice. I have a soft spot for limericks. Thank you, thank you so much.

So, my question. What are the hardest reasons to give thanks? I had a fellow student that I had been slighting of, tell me that she might not be smart, but it hurt her feelings when I cut her off and ignored her, rolled my eyes and sighed when she talked. I was in ninth grade, but I got it. I will always be grateful to her for calling me on my meanness. I still feel badly about how I treated her, but I did listen. I did learn.

Another fellow student called me on always feeling ill, having a bad day, always excusing myself for not being prepared or for leaving early. He prodded me to begin a long, long, hard journey into my own misery and out the other side. Eventually. The other students thought he was being mean. Hurt as I was, I defended him. He was right, after all.

I'm grateful that my parents put me through catholic school. Not easily, not really affordable for a factory worker laid off, then hired as a groundskeeper for a cemetery. I was offered a great education, and was cured of Catholicism at the same time. I will always be thankful, education is never wasted.