Thankful in 2014

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Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! 

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday, and for those of you who do not celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you're having a great day! This year, I'm heading up to Maine with my parents and pups to spend time with my extended family on my mom's side. It's great to be able to have time in my schedule this year to travel and spend time with them, because it's one of the only times of the year where I get to see them all at one time! As I mentioned last year, I always try to take a second to reflect what I'm thankful for. I'd like to just *ditto* everything from last year (I will always be thankful for friends, family, health, and jobs!) and also add a few things that are unique to this year in particular.

I'm on track to graduate with my Master's degree in May. At this point last year, the thought of graduation seemed pretty non-existent (I mean, even in the spring I still wasn't sure if graduating on time was in the cards for me). Now that my third semester is winding down and the assignments that I need to complete can be done pretty easily, it looks more and more that I'll be crossing the stage in the spring! It's a relief to be a bit more at ease about graduating on time as it was causing a lot of anxiety throughout my first year!

I've been able to balance everything in my life successfully this semester. Again, something I was very anxious about leading up to this fall! But I think I've done a really great job of taking care of all of my responsibilities, making sure my relationships are in a great spot, and also making sure I'm not losing my mind in the process. Taking things a day at a time and keeping a positive attitude has been extremely helpful, and I'm hoping it continues to get me through the rest of the academic year (even through the job/apartment search and an additional class during the spring semester!).

I've been given so many awesome professional opportunities this year and as a grad student, that's awesome. I was invited to present at a national convention and regional conference, I was offered a really cool graduate internship for the 2014-2015 year, I was offered a summer internship that allowed me to gain so much great hands-on experience with an orientation program, and I've been encouraged to do or apply to as many awesome things as I can get my hands on. It's really amazing to work with people who see professional potential in me in the field that I want to go into, and has really given me the confidence to step out of my comfort zone and dream big!

What are you thankful for this year?