It’s that time of the year again. You know, the time when Vermont starts to get cold, but Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner so it’s hard to actually be upset about it.

It’s also a time when everyone and everything seems to be telling you to be thankful. Be thankful you have this. Be thankful you can do that. Or my favorite, be thankful you DON’T have to do that.

So naturally I am here to double down on that message and tell all of you readers to be thankful and appreciate the people and things in your life. Thank your parents, significant others, friends, even your pets.

Whatever it is that keeps you going throughout the day, thank them or it for being there. It doesn’t even have to big stuff like family members, pets, or your car. It could just be the amount of free time you have on a Monday, or being able to breathe through your nose.

But I get it, thanking someone for being in your life sounds a little weird, as does thanking yourself for taking no Monday classes this semester. Fortunately, there are more ways than just saying it out loud to show people and things you appreciate having them around.

For example, the summer before I entered fifth grade, my parents pulled me aside during a family barbeque to tell me that after I graduated fifth grade we would be moving three hours away to a town in the middle of nowhere called Castleton.

I remember I cried for hours that day, I didn’t want to leave all of my friends or the town I had spent the last seven years in. I also cried the day we left because I had so many fond memories in that town.

But for all the tears I shed that last year I spent there. It was the best year of the seven I had lived in Otego, New York.

I became closer friends with all of my classmates and teachers, some of which I am still in contact with. I really dedicated myself to learning the clarinet (that motivation didn’t last very long afterwards). The thing I remember most, is the school play where I killed it and my teacher told me to remember her when I end up on Broadway.

As you can probably tell from reading this article I am not on Broadway yet, and don’t plan to be for a while.

I spent that last year appreciating and being thankful for the time I had left with my friends and the town I called home. Not only by saying to everyone and everything that I loved them, and I was happy to have them there, but also by showing it in my actions.

We all have something to be thankful for, make sure to show that thing how thankful you really are. After all, you never know when you may lose it.

-Jac Culpo