I officially declare Thanksgiving to be my most hated day of the year. This holiday, which is traditionally accompanied by mass murdering of poor turkeys, a very obsessive consumption of various fattening delights -- such as stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce -- and family get-togethers, is no more than just another reminder of how far away my own family is. Every single person I know is spending this day with his or her relatives, the downtown has been dead starting from 3 pm when all the stores were shut down, and practically every house in our quiet suburbs has its dining room lights on. While people around me have been busy doing grocery shopping, cooking, and chatting away at the holiday table, I, for lack of better alternatives, have spent most of this day watching "House" re-runs. Oh, well, since I'm not planning to start a family of my own in near future, there is nothing much I can do about the situation; therefore, I'll just try to do my best to ignore the whole thing. Fortunately, there are only two family holidays in a year, so it shouldn't be difficult.

Nevertheless, following a pretty corny Thanksgiving tradition, as a true American in training, I have to figure out what I'm thankful for this year. Perhaps the most important and obvious thing I should be grateful for is being given an opportunity to see my mom for the first time in almost three years. Also, this year I have finally come to a conclusion of what my career aspirations are, which is a wonderful thing taking into consideration that I've spent all the years since finishing school having no clue of what I want to do in my life. Today, my studies are no longer something I do because I have to - I absolutely love learning new things about economics and finance; being able to understand what the heck they are talking about in all those business news channels feels pretty great as well. I'm even thankful for not being able to move to NYC this winter because it wouldn't have been wise if I did. I still don't know if I will be able to get into Student Ambassador Program, which will let me study free of charge for the next two semesters, but even if I don't I am much better off finishing my current college and moving on after that than quitting in the mid-way and starting all over in New York.

There are still a few things that I want to accomplish before the end of the year, but even though the past eleven months were not the most exciting ones, they have certainly been an improvement over the previous year, which is another thing to be thankful for.