Thank you.

A year ago today I was embarking on the most hungover 8 hour drive of my life. It had been a weekend to remember, Thanksgivings have a tendency of being like that the last few years. I had swam in Kootenay lake (freezing), ate very well, and caught up with friends. I closed the book on one part of my life and opened another, that thanksgiving weekend is in fact the reason why my favourite iPhone contact ends in a question mark. This year has been dramatically different. In fact I just finished my "Thanksgiving Feast": a bowl of pasta with a spicy homemade sauce, a bottle of (GF) beer, and episode of trash TV before hitting my tiny laptop running with projects and exams to get finished. But I have gotten used to my life being flung far and wide and those who mean the most to me, my family live scattered across more time zones than I would like to acknowledge. That being said, yesterday was a very un-Alberta thanksgiving Sunday, spent with my favourite tiny family on a boat in the sun and then with my surrogate family, those who have seen me at my worst and hopefully at my best as well, my classmates, in our ugly sweaters.  So tonight, being physically alone on Thanksgiving Monday isn't as unnerving as it might have been twelve months ago.

With all this what I am thankful for this year is mostly new and wonderfully exciting. I am thankful for all my new friends/MBA family, who I would not have survived the last year without. I am grateful for the Kerrigan sense of adventure which leaves us scattered across this country, and me on my way to Spain in 4 short days. I am grateful for the challenges of this past year that have proved to me, finally, that I can really do it all. I am grateful beyond words for skype, facetime, Facebook chat, email, and international texting plans and would be THE MOST grateful if flights we just a little (lot) cheaper. I am thankful for 10 hour power dates and long walks home from Gastown. I am grateful that Jay still works... please Volvo gods, keep up the good work. I am grateful for my 'old' friends who have stuck with me through this all. Most of all I am very thankful for all the opportunities just over the horizon. For jobs yet to be secured, for wintery moves, for new lives, for adventure.

Thank you.

Photo Credit: Teresa Edgar

Photo Credit: Peter Edgar

Photo Credit: Skye Lee