People like to make a lot of lists this time of year: Christmas presents to buy, chores to complete before family comes to town, New Year’s resolutions (although if you’re making New Year’s resolutions already you are obviously so organized and ahead of the game that I don’t think you need any). But one of the most popular lists people make around this time is the list of things they are thankful for.
Many include great friends, loving family or a steady job. Of course, those things are amazing and I feel lucky to be able to put all of them on my list, but I find myself being thankful for little things almost every day, and I don’t want those simple pleasures to be overlooked. Just because I have perfectly toasted toast every day doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate it every day.
So here is a short list of just a few of the things I’m thankful for this year:
The trees on campus
Maybe I’ve just been blind the last two years I’ve lived in Eugene, but this year I have really been able to appreciate all the gorgeous leaves and colors that are all over our campus. There’s a tree that I pass every day on my way to classes that — for a few weeks at least — had leaves the exact color of Cheetos. I didn’t know that shade existed in the natural world, but it totally does. Fantastic!
Totally kickass pencils
Finals week is approaching, my friends, and one thing that can make all those exams even worse is being forced to use a really awful pencil. Filling in bubble after bubble with a pencil with dull lead or with one of those erasers that just smudges the shading around can be all that it takes to distract me from the important business of choosing the correct answer. So when I found @@stole!@@a picture-perfect Dixon Ticonderoga No. 2 pencil the other day, I pocketed it immediately. All’s fair in love, war and finals week, after all.
This term is almost over
Has this term totally sucked for anyone else? I am struggling big time. I know, I know, I wrote a column at the beginning of the year detailing all the reasons fall term is better than the rest, but after nine weeks of soul-sucking classes and that miserable football game on Saturday, I’m so ready for a change. And those four weeks of winter break won’t hurt either.
I don’t go to Oregon State
I’m honestly not trying to sound catty here, I swear. I grew up a Beavers fan and even attended that epic double-overtime Oregon State Civil War win back in 2007 dressed in orange and black, but I wouldn’t trade these years in Eugene for anything. We’ve had a top-notch football team that has provided nearly guaranteed wins while our friends from Corvallis have, well, struggled. We have a brand-new arena that plays host to events like Elton John concerts and, if the basketball gods didn’t hate the NBA so much, Trail Blazer exhibition games. We have Uncle Phil. Let’s face it: Things haven’t been too bad around Eugene.
The weather lately
Am I the only one freaking out about the weather? I can count the number of times I’ve had to walk to class in the rain on one hand, probably. That’s insane. At this point in the term I’m usually so sick of the outdoors that I hole up in bed and only get up to watch “How I Met Your Mother.” Not that that’s such a bad life, but it’s nice to have been able to leave the house in anything less than those jackets the guys from “Deadliest Catch” wear.
Real food
I’ve been a pretty lucky college student so far in that I haven’t ever had to resort to eating Top Ramen or Hot Pockets to get by. @@cheap shot, Ms. Brown.@@But lately, with an increase in bills and a decrease in time to go grocery shopping, I’ve pretty much been forced to live off of refried beans and toast. I’m looking forward to a few square meals (and vegetables that aren’t pizza) to help me power through these last couple weeks of the term.