For Thanksgiving, I'm Thankful For Life's Tribulations

As Thanksgiving is coming around the corner, we are told to give thanks for the things we have & the blessings we're given.

But I want to express how I'm thankful for the things I didn't have & tribulations I've experienced throughout my life.

I'm thankful for experiencing homelessness multiple times as a child and as an adult because I appreciate even more so the home I currently have. I don't take for granted being able to wake up in a comfortable bed instead of a motel room in Nashville because I had nowhere to go.

I'm thankful for experiencing panic attacks at my old job a decade ago because it brought me into therapy to resolve old emotional issues that I had been pushing down for years. Without that experience, I don't know where I'd be today.

As much as I would've loved to have my father in my life, I am in many ways glad my father wasn't in my life because it made me value my role as a father to my son even more so. My motivation was to not be my father and make sure my son never had to worry if his father loved him.

I am thankful for all of the failed relationships because for each one, I learned something about myself and it contributed to me becoming a better man and partner for my wife today.

I am thankful for getting fired after 3 weeks from a customer service position because I had the flu, making me ineligible for unemployment and having no income for 3 months. Without them firing me, I wouldn't have found my first IT Support position which kicked off my career.

I am thankful for having my car repossessed years ago because it makes me extremely appreciative of being able to afford a brand-new car today.

I am thankful for the "friends" who abandoned me once I started to voice my opinions publicly. You leaving my orbit did me a favor and it allowed me to gain a ton more people who support me. It was good while it lasted but thank you for leaving when you did.

I am thankful for the mainstream media lies because they allowed me to become more skeptical of the world around me.

I am thankful for being wrong about so much in my life because it has only made me even more curious to learn more about what I do not know.

We often take moments of pain, trauma, and difficulties as being purely negative, when if you shift your perspective, they could be moments to learn from or speed bumps towards greatness.

Once I stopped seeing myself as a victim and become accountable, appreciative, and optimistic, I saw every experience as a valuable experience. As a writer, I've now found a way to not only use my pain as a lesson for myself but for others as well.

We shouldn't just be thankful for the things we can buy or the great times we had but also thankful that we made it through the darkness and into the light. Those difficult times in my life helped to build my character & I needed every one of them.

I could have lived my life feeling sorry for myself that my father wasn't in my life but I've found a way to use that emotional turmoil as a kid from being neglected into public advocacy for others to potentially do better.

That pain you're holding onto is only pain if you want it to be. Shift your perspective and you can find the blessing in it. You're still here and fighting, so be thankful that God made you strong enough to endure it.

Happy Thanksgiving.