My generation is one of entitlement and expectations so I think its important to take time to dwell on the things we are thankful for. I am thankful for many things. Although I may bash it a lot, I am thankful to live in a country with some freedom. Some countries around the world do not have the freedom of speech, religion or the press as America does so I am thankful for the Bill of Rights.
I'm also thankful for the free public education in America. Yes, we used to be top of line, and now, America is number 27 on the public education charts, but I am still thankful for it. I am thankful for the many teachers who have made my life what it is today. I am very thankful for my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Criss. I learned more in her class than I have any year since then. I am also thankful for Mrs. Judy, a counselor at Pressley Ridge. She helped me through a hard time and taught me so much about life. Being a teacher isn't just one of those jobs where you just go for the paycheck. You have to genuinely care about the students. The workers at McDonald's cook your food, but they usually don't leave such an impact on your life. I think that teachers are on the same level as doctors and judges as far as impacting the people they work with. Teachers mold children's lives. I spend more time with my teachers than I do with my parents. It has been that way since I began school, because they are always either working or weren't there. Parents are given too much credit for raising children. Teachers also have a huge say in how a child will turn out.
Although my parents haven't always been there, I am thankful for them. I'm also thankful for my foster parents. Most foster kids don't maintain relationships with foster families after returning to their birth parents, but I have always had a strong relationship with my foster family. They still support me and hang out with me when they can. I have always made the mistake of calling people my home instead of places, because ever since I was little, I didn't know where I'd be from one moment to the next. We moved around a lot. I've lived in 9 different houses and we are moving again on December 4. Also, my parents are divorced and have been since I was a baby and there wasn't really ever a schedule of who had me so there was a lot of fighting and sometimes I went back and forth 2 or 3 times a week. At one point, I was homeless so family has always been so important to me and meant more than a building, even though my definition of family has change a lot.
They say it takes a village to raise a child, and they aren't lying. I've lived with just about everybody; parents, grandparents, friends, strangers, a foster family, my aunt and uncle, just my younger siblings and I for a while. I think community is such a vital concept in a society. I am thankful for the people in our community and the strong concept of community and unity that we have in this area. I was homeless in Morristown, NJ for a while. Morristown is a city of about 20,000, and the people there are not like the people here in our town of 7,000. They are rude and stuck-up and don't even make eye contact on the streets. People in neighborhoods had "No loitering" signs on their porches that were directed towards the homeless. It made me very thankful for the tight sense of community we have here.
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