The Rabenstranger

While I didn’t think it could be possible, this year’s Thanksgiving dinner was even more pathetic than last years. Last year, Stephanie, Kimi and I wandered around in Ikebukero trying to find ingredients to make some sort of a Thanksgiving meal before giving up and eating at KFC, chicken being the closest thing we could find to Turkey.  This year, my plans for a Thanksgiving dinner with friends fell apart and I ended up eating stir-fry alone in my apartment room, listening to Five Iron Frenzy to keep my spirits up.
As I think of what I most thankful right now, I am thankful that in two weeks I will be aboard a plane headed home to spend Christmas with my family, a college graduate and finally finished with this long, difficult semester. The relief I feel when I realize that the end is in sight is immense. I know that it is more than a little bit petty for me to focus on such temporary matter on a day created to remember all our blessings but the imminent end of school is what I am honestly thinking about most right now.

Still, I should take a moment to record a few of the things that I thank God for most:

I am thankful for my family. I love my parents and my siblings.

I am thankful that I was born an American and that despite the best efforts of tyrants, fascists, Nazis, communists and bureaucrats the United States is still the land of the free and the world’s pre-eminent cultural, economic and military superpower.

I am thankful for the internet, books and language. Life would be awful without the ability to conveniently and precisely communicate ideas with others.

I’ve been able to pay for university without going into debt or taking money from the government.
I am thankful that I have never gone hungry, never slept outside without wanting to, never had to go without appropriate clothes.

Thank you God. You have blessed me far beyond what I could ever deserve.