my family doesn’t really celebrate thanksgiving. i can’t even remember the last time i’ve had real turkey, not that processed sandwich meat from safeway.

funny how it takes one day of the year for people to actually give thanks for what they have been given in life. they have to be queued into a room with the ascending generations in order to realize not to take things for granted. i wonder how people can be like that. like birthdays, for example. you need a birthday in order for people to start acknowledging the wonderful person that you are. i always thought greatness, if apparent, was a given.

it took some random dude at a bus-stop to make me actually think about my mood admist all of the family functions i have been attending lately. so i’m walking down this street and i pass a young man in a grey sweatshirt sitting on a bench. “smile,” he unexpectedly says when i am in close proximity.

“what?” is my natural response as i spin around.

“smile,” he repeats, “why do you look so pissed off? what do you have to feel so horribly sad about?” and this actually makes me smile, in a weird turn of matters. i don’t say anything more as i continue walking to meet up with my friend on the other side of the street.

seems trivial, you may be thinking. but it’s these slight occurences that finally get me thinking. life is ultimately built on the foundation of trivialities and finicky details. why take one day of the year to give thanks for those around you and all of their wonderful stupidities? they don’t last for one day; they span the whole year and sometimes even lifetimes. why not simply smile and give thanks for those stupidities as they come? you’ll feel so much more fulfilled in the long run.