For the past 30 days *cough4months* I challenged myself to write 31 stories that remind me to always remain thankful.
"Write 31 stories. That sounds pretty easy, and a good way to start blogging in the new year," I convinced myself last December.
Day one was easy. By day five, people were complimenting my commitment. A couple of times, people asked me who I was writing about. Other times people would share how they emotionally reacted to something I wrote (which, as a blogger, is the biggest compliment - even though I feel very embarrassed by it at the same time.)
By day 11 I started to struggle. It wasn't even the halfway mark but I felt like I was running out of decent stories. By Day 15 I wished I had just made a list of 31 things I was thankful for, so all I needed to do was mention how much I enjoy my morning Milo and that I was thankful if the bus arrived on time.
Towards the 20s - the rest of life caught up with me and there was not enough time to spare to write every single day. That's my biggest regret in this project. I even had my own mum tell me off about not finishing it like this project was my homework.
But if there's something I really appreciated about this project, it was to remember what it was like to write for me, as me. I remembered why I love to write, and how much I enjoy that moment of passion where you have so many words in your head that your own hands don't even keep up with your thoughts.
This Month of Thankfulness has also challenged me in more ways than one. I've shed tears while writing a couple of these posts, and I've learned to be at peace with my own stories too. These stories have contained pieces of my own heart in words I never thought I could share, and honesty to my own emotions I didn't think I was brave enough to reveal.
One of the hardest moments was finding out my Dutch Grandfather [who I talked about in this post] passed away April last year, and not knowing it happened until I had Googled about him that night. I'm sad I didn't think about him sooner, and after I published that post - I didn't feel like writing for this project anymore.
But on bad days, I do look at these posts and take a moment to recount what I'm thankful for.
Ultimately, I didn't finish this project because people told me I should. I finished it as a commitment to myself and a reminder of all the things I'm grateful in this life.
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I'm writing 31 personal stories about things in my life I'm thankful for. See all my posts during my month of thankfulness here.
