What I Am Thankful For
November 30, 2019
Welcome back! How have y’all been? Hopefully, wherever you are reading this from, you are nice and warm as the temperatures outside are dipping low (or if you are in the southern hemisphere, hopefully it is nice and cool as you guys head into summer). These drastic rises and falls in temperature are doing a number on people around here. I hope wherever you are, you are enjoying a cup of your favorite drink and the time with those you love and care for in all manner of relationships (romantic, platonic, familial, professional, and everything in between).
I am going to divert a little from my usual type of post, because, well it is my blog and I can ^_^. As I am writing this, it is the week of Thanksgiving; as you are reading this, it will be the last week of the year! I would like to take this time and be thankful for all the opportunities and blessings I have had this past year. Honestly, 2019 has been such a good year for me and I want to share that.
First and foremost, I want to thank all of you out there who have read these posts. Honestly, I have no idea who is out there. Well, that is not entirely true. The analytics for the website tell me how many views each post gets, how much traffic comes to the blog, things like that. So I know that people are reading this. Or maybe they are bots, in which case I wonder if they understand what I am trying to convey? I have been telling more people about it, so I assume some of the traffic comes from them. But, there are a lot more views than my circle of friends. So, thank you for coming back!
None of this would be possible if it were not for the fact that I had a major career change this year. I took a job offer that was closer to my home. One of the perks is that my commute dropped from 3 hours every work day to 40 minutes. That means I am not exhausted when I come home from work! I have the time and energy to work on side projects, like a blog.
But my new job is not the only reason I now have extra time. I live at home with my parents, so thankfully, I do not have to worry about rent, utilities, cooking/cleaning, all the things that go with living. That is not to say I freeload at my parents’ home. I very much pull my share of the responsibilities. But the work is divided, so all of my time is not taken up by work and chores. But living at home has its juxtaposition. On the one hand, I am a 26-year-old American living at home. I should have moved out after I was done with college. Why am I still dependent on my parents? It is not a good look. But as a 26-year-old Malayalee, it is completely acceptable, in fact expected, that I live at home with my parents. What would an unmarried woman such as myself do in the big scary world without my father, or brother, or husband to take care of me? It is not easy to balance that dual life, and some days are harder than others, but I am making it happen. I am thankful I have parents who will let me stay with them. I know without them, things would be so much more difficult.
Lastly, for this post, I want to say how thankful I am for being part of the American Malayalee community. Yes, this entire blog is me complaining about them, but there is more to them. These aunties and uncles that I write about care about me, about my future and my well-being. They just happen to express that care in an outdated manner. Does that make it okay? Not at all! And by no means should we continue this behavior. The intentions are pure, and that is what I am thankful for.
Okay, that is it for this post. I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving! Let me know in the comments what you are thankful for this year. Until the next post.
- Aemi
