Happy Thanksgiving!

This is my first Thanksgiving away from home, and it's certainly kind of a bummer, especially since there's very little spirit of Thanksgiving here in Dominica. Tonight, a few of my friends and I are going to go to a Thanksgiving dinner sponsored by the Ross Student Catholic Association. True, it won't be the same, and I won't have endless amounts of Filipino food to go along with the usual Thanksgiving meal, but I'm happy that I get to celebrate the occasion in some way or another. I've missed 5 Easters at home being in NY, so even though I consider Thanksgiving to be a bigger deal, I guess I've gotten used to missing out on big family gatherings and holidays.

Being the optimist that I am (and that I have to be...I could rant on and on about how negative some people can be here), I'm still thankful because if I wasn't here on Thanksgiving Day, then I wouldn't be in med school fulfilling one of my biggest goals in life. It's true. So in the spirit of Thanksgiving, here are the things I'm thankful for.

- Family - I don't think I have to go on and on about this, but I'm thankful to have such a strong support system back home in Chicago. They're the people who I know I'll ALWAYS be able to count on no matter what happens.
- Friends - my friends in NY basically are my family, and I know that even though I'm missing out on a lot these next couple of years, they'll still always have my back.
- Gabe - he's handsome, smart, and has extremely good taste in food and fashion. my kind of guy. I'm so thankful he's so supportive of me even when we're thousands of miles apart.
- New York City - I never really thought about this before Dominica, but I'm so thankful I've gotten a chance to live in the greatest city in the world for 5 years. It's taught me so much about myself, life, society, the world...everything. Having lived in New York not only helped me to adapt to med school and Dominica in so many ways (possibly reserve this discussion for a separate blog post), but it's helped me grow into a mature and experienced person.
- Med school - it really is an honor and a privilege to be in med school and to be learning all these things, so I'm thankful that this school has given me this opportunity. It's definitely not easy, but it's not supposed to be, so I'll be even more thankful if I can pass every semester and not fail a single standardized exam.
- Bacon - I like bacon.
- Wheat beer, fine wine, and fancy cocktails - I like sophisticated forms of alcohol.
- Ninjavideo.net - you'll fall in love too.
- food and fashion - two things I absolutely love but don't have much of here in Dominica.

Anyways, I could probably go on and on about the random things I'm thankful for, but it's time to resume pulmonary phys studying. I get to eat turkey in an hour and a half, YAY!