During a very stressful 2020, I was so stressed out and anxious. So after watching a Headspace ad on free meditations on CNN, I decided to try it in the summer. Then one day I watched the Wake Up, a series of mini videos and on one of the videos, the girl did a gratitude journal during her social media hiatus challenge. So, I was energized and decided to try doing it myself as well. I scoured all over my apartment and found a sort of damaged and scrappy three subject notebook that one of my siblings barely used and ripped out the written pages for my gratitude journal.

With a helpful boost from the Fabulous app, I went on a gratitude challenge and started writing what I’m grateful for. The Fabulous app is an app that helps me do healthy routines like working out, eating breakfast, and unwinding before bed. It also has challenges like the no social media challenge and tidying up challenge. As time went on, I started writing what I’m grateful for nearly every weeknight. Writing what I’m grateful for really relaxed my brain before bed. Doing gratitude journals gave me piece of sanity and calm.

Around this April, I ran out of space, so I decided to order another 3 subject notebook and this time I split it into gratitude, regrets and worries. Last night, I ran out of space in my gratitude section, so I found another unused notebook and turned it into another gratitude notebook.

On June 17th of this year, I wrote about how grateful I am about getting vaccinated back in April at a Walgreens pharmacy. After writing with a lot with a very panicky mind with the fear of breakthrough covid, it gave me a sense of euphoria and security.  

As I wrote of what I’m grateful for weeknights, I vibrantly went deeper and deeper into events that happened pre-pandemic and during the pandemic, like traveling, my graduations, and other feel-good moments. Of all the things I took for granted, the biggest things were traveling and my graduations. As I was writing, during the pandemic, I just realized that traveling gave me a sense of freedom. It allowed me to feel the moving air and the green, relaxing landscapes. No masks, no need to keep your distance and little worries of getting sick. My 5th, 8th and 12th grade graduation took place pre-covid. For my Senior trips, I went to Adventureland, a laser tag place somewhere in upstate New York and one very bright one in Long Island City for my 12th grade senior trip and Six Flags Great Adventure. Out of all of them, Six Flags was the most significant of all time because it was so thrilling and colorful. So, I learned to never take life’s moments for granted, because I never realized that I had something, until it was gone, just like a blur.