Gratitude | Yenae Gebru ’23

Gratitude

Yenae Gebru ’23

Gratitude: the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.

In life, most people tend to take little things for granted. I know I have. I’d like to say I live my life constantly expressing my gratitude towards people who deserve it, but I know sometimes I fail at it. I’m beyond grateful for so many things in my life, especially my family and friends. My family and friends are the most important people in my life. I would do anything for them. But I don’t tell them how thankful I am for existing as much as I should. Without my family and friends, I wouldn’t be who I am today. My mom, my dad, my siblings, and my grandparents have all impacted me as a person. Without my mom, I wouldn’t know what unconditional love feels like. Without my dad, I wouldn’t have grown up knowing my voice is just as important as everyone else’s. Without my siblings, I might not have been so accepting and caring towards people as I am. Without my grandparents, I would never have experienced half the things I have. These people gave me life and reasons to live. As for my friends, they have all helped me be who I want to be. I have gained friends just as much as I lost them. But even the ones I lost I am still grateful for, because at some point in my life they made me happy.

Not only am I grateful for people, but I am grateful for basketball and books. I grew up playing ball and reading about all the magical things I could. My safe place is a basketball court. It is the one place I am free to breathe and focus on one thing: the ball. I love the way the ball sounds when it hits the floor, the way the net sounds when the ball swishes, and the way the sounds make me feel. I love the leather feeling of the ball and the way it rolls off my fingertips when I take a shot. Basketball makes me feel alive because I am in control. When I’m guarding a person or have the ball, I am in control. I have the power. I can control whether or not I stop the person I’m defending or, if I have the ball, whether I pass or shoot. While reading, I like that I’m not in control. I love books because they let me forget about the world I live in and travel to a place in my mind where things like magic exist. Books have given me a passion for words and literature. They have helped me find what I want to do with my life. I want to travel and write about the things I see and experience. But I also want to write stories for little girls and boys who are also looking for an escape from reality.

Without all these things, my life would feel incomplete. The amount of gratitude I have for the people in my life and the things that have shaped my life is almost inexpressible. I don’t have enough words to describe how thankful I am for the existence of these things. But for now the definition of gratitude does the job of expressing how important these things are to me.