Six Habits of Highly Grateful People

Gratefulness. A trait that everyone should pay more attention to, that of which Jeremy Adam Smith highlights in "Six Habits of Highly Grateful People". Smith elaborated all the components that make up a grateful person. One who often thinks about death and loss, takes the time to smell the roses, takes the good things as gifts, not birthrights, are grateful to people, not just things, mentions the pancakes, thanks outside the box ("Six Habits..."). All of these are key factors in becoming a truly thankful person. Responding to all that Smith had to say about gratefulness, I would like to explore my own thoughts on the subject.
I agree that gratefulness is beneficial in one's life. I feel as though if a person is more grateful on a daily basis, they are overall more happy. This could possibly be fake happiness in the moment, but that will eventually transfer into a pure emotion. Take soccer practice, for example, since I am so familiar with that topic. While at soccer practice in the scorching hot weather, with our coach down our throat, we have to stay grateful to stay sane. There is one girl on our team that I especially envy because of her ability to stay positive. We normally practice for two hours everyday, and we can keep track of the passing time because of the loud bell we have on campus. Stating practice at four in the afternoon, we know we will hear the bell once at five and another time at six, then our practice is about to come to an end. Well, every time the clock would strike five and we heard those church bells rings five times in a row, most of us would dread the last hour of practice, except the one girl I mentioned before. She would always say after the bell rang, "one hour down!" This is way more grateful that what most of the other girls would say, "ugh, one more hour to go!" I feel like she was overall happier in that last hour because of her positive outlook on the situation.
Since it is the week of Thanksgiving, I think gratefulness is a wonderful topic to bring to light. We need to learn as a society how to be more grateful on a daily basis. We can't, for instance, just after reading this article change our mentality just for the day. Or just be grateful on Thanksgiving, because that's what we're told to do. No. Gratefulness needs to become a habit everyday, eventually turning into a lifestyle.

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Works Cited

Smith, Jeremy. "Six Habits of Highly Grateful People." Greater Good The Science of a Meaningful Life. Ed. Jason Marsh. N.p., 20 Nov. 2013. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/six_habits_of_highly_grateful_people>.

Mental Toughness #8

The question that Professor Barry proposed to us, "Do you think there is a higher purpose for your life?", is very hard to answer. It's hard to consider the overall purpose of your life, and be able to write it in a blog post. Professor Barry is basically asking the meaning for our existence, which is an extremely tough question.
Well, I would have to start by saying purposes of my life that are strictly school related. I would have to say my purpose or goal for myself is to get a good education and eventually get a job that I love. But that is all boring stuff.
My high school math teacher once asked our class, what defines us? Paraphrasing, he said, "if someone were to ask you who you were as a person, what would you say? I don't mean your name and what you do, I mean who you are?" He didn't our answer to be, for example, "my name is Tara Armstrong and I play soccer while attending Texas Lutheran". He wanted our answer to be more along the lines of, "my name is Tara Armstrong and I am a intelligent person and a thoughtful friend". This question stuck with me and the answer he wanted made me question what I would say.
I guess my purpose in life, and who I consider myself to be, is a leader and a friend. I pride myself on being a thoughtful, considerate person who will do anything for other people. I also take leadership and responsibility roles whenever I get the chance. Whether that be, organizing an event for my friends or taking control of a school project, I am never hesitant to take the lead.
If people were to be asked what they thought of me, I would hope they would say something along those lines. That I am an overall loving person that is intelligence and can act as a leader when need be. Not only do I hope they would say this, I'm pretty positive that is what they would say. What I leave behind as my legacy or purpose in life, will be my ability to help in any situation presented.

Mental Toughness #7

This week we are going to mention gratitude. Professor Barry looked into research by Dr. Robert Emmons at UC-Davis that suggested "consciously cultivating an attitude of gratitude builds up a sort of psychological immune system that can cushion us when we fall" ("How Gratitude Can Help..."). So I asked myself the question, what am I grateful for? For one, I am grateful for my health and waking up everyday. I am grateful for my family, my support system, always by my side. I am thankful for my friends I have at home and the new friends I have already grown so close with. I am thankful for my experiences and being able to explore my own life and create memories for myself. I am thankful that I am able to have a college career, some are not as lucky as I. I am especially thankful everyday for living the life I do.

Taking all of these gratitudes into consideration, I then question there helpfulness in my college life. I agree with Dr. Emmons that "grateful people are more resilient to stress, whether minor everyday hassles or major personal upheavals" ("How Gratitude Can Help..."). Whenever I am having a really stressful day, I remember all the good things in my life. I look to my family and friends for comfort. Whenever I am having an extremely tough day with classes, I just remember that I am lucky to even have this shot in college and I need to take advantage. Being grateful for what I have, versus dwelling on what I lack, gets me through everyday obstacles. 

I think it is important for everyone to try and be grateful for something everyday. It bothers me when everyone decides to finally take their gratitudes into consideration only one day a year, Thanksgiving. Most people will share their thoughts and gratitudes on that day, not realizing that they should be thankful for these things all the time.


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Works Cited: 

       Emmons, Robert. “How Gratitude Can Help You Through Hard Times.” Greater Good: the Science of a Meaningful Life. the Greater Good Science Center, UC-Berkeley, 12 Nov. 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2013. <http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/what_stops_gratitude>.

Transitioning from High School to College #10

This week is my birthday week. My first birthday spent away from home. It is strange not going home after school and not seeing surprises from my parents waiting for me at home. Also, missing out on my favorite meal of tri-tip and mashed potatoes. There are a lot of things I miss at home, but I especially miss home cooked meals. I may have mentioned this somewhere in one of my previous blogs, but it is amazing how much a home cooked meal means when all you eat is the school cafeteria food. Healthy habits are hard to maintain when you have limited choices everyday.
Another thing that I miss a lot from back home is my dog. I have had the same dog for the past nine years now, and it is so strange not waking up to her every morning. I plan to go home at Thanksgiving, and so most times I get on the phone with my parents they tell me how excited they are to see me. I respond to my dad every single time, "I miss you, but I miss Hershey more." He laughs, but I think he's realized I'm not really joking! My biggest fear, though, is that she won't recognize me when I come back home. I know that is highly unlikely but it's still a worry of mine. Especially since when my sister went home to visit, my dog chose not to pay attention to her; ignoring her completely like she was mad.
One thing that has been running through my head all week is also the possibility of me not being able to go home for Thanksgiving. As an athletic trainer, we have the responsibility to stay on campus when the football team is on campus. With them doing so well this season, they have the chance of making playoffs, which mean they would stay here practicing over Thanksgiving break. I really want them to continue doing well and hopefully make playoffs, but another part of me really wants to go home. I haven't been home in awhile and I miss being in California. It will be a sticky situation to have to deal with. Part of me wants them to move on in the football season, and another part of me does not.

Transitioning from High School to College #9

This week is an important week in my college journey. Both my parents are coming to visit and I couldn't be more excited! I haven't had a chance to see my mom since she first dropped me off at college, and I can honestly say I miss her so much more than I imagined possible. Talking to your parents over the phone is definitely not the same as seeing them in person.
This weekend is definitely going to be an exciting time for me. They get to come watch two of my soccer games and then we are heading to San Antonio on Saturday for the day. Here is an overall recap of our weekend that took place. First, they flew in on Thursday and I was able to hang out with them after soccer practice and grab something to eat. Friday, they came to watch us play during the afternoon. Unfortunately, we lost our game on Friday but I was still honored that they were able to watch me play. After the game, we went out to dinner and got some Texas Barbecue. Compared to California, the barbecue places here are substantially better so my parents love to get that when they come to visit. On Saturday, we took a day trip to San Antonio. We were able to go to the river walk and spend the whole day exploring the number two highest tourist spot in Texas. I had never been to the river walk before, and neither had my parents, so it was definitely a treat. I loved spending the day with my parents, since I have not been able to do that for a really long time. Sunday was their last day in town, and so they came to watch another one of my soccer games. A little after the game, they had to leave to the airport. It was so sad to have to say goodbye to them again, but I only have to wait another month before I see them again. I am just so blessed that I am able to see my parents still other than on school vacations. I know a lot of other kids who leave home to go far away for college, have to wait multiple months at a time to see any members of their family. 

Transitioning from High School to College #8

This week was the week of our mid-semester break. I was unaware that any college gave students a random mid semester break, but I found it to come at the perfect time! College is a stressful place and it is helpful to have a break every once in awhile. If they had not given us this break, we wouldn't have one until Thanksgiving.
Since it was mid-semester break, campus was cleared out. Most people went home for the four days we had off. That is sometimes the strangest part of living so far away. You don't have anywhere to go on the weekend, like the rest of the people do. It is sometimes depressing because campus can get pretty boring over the weekend. That is when I am so thankful that I was able to get a roommate that is also from California. We are always stuck in the same boat.
I may not have been able to go home, but I stayed busy with soccer over the entire break. We traveled to Dallas and Houston over the break. Dallas was a good trip that turned ugly in the end. Our bus ended up running out of gas and we were stranded at University of Dallas for about five hours. We ended up having to call in favors to get us switched to a different bus that could get us home. Eventually, we started heading back around midnight and didn't get back to campus until five in the morning. It was quite a night and I am really thankful we had a good win over University of Dallas, otherwise being stranded with our coach for that long could have been a nightmare. Overall it was a rough night, but it will be a trip that I will always remember.
Luckily, our trip to Houston was a lot more pleasant. We ended up winning a huge game and came off of the weekend 2-0. It was definitely a weekend that will stick in my memory, that is for sure.
I was disappointed at first that soccer was going to consume my whole break, but then I realized I would have gotten bored over the break if it wasn't for soccer.

Transitioning from High School to College #7

This week has been pretty relaxed, compared to other weeks. I still have my hectic schedule, but I have grown pretty accustomed to it over the past two months.
One major event that happened this week, was getting my first college essay returned to me. Before our Professor handed them back she mentioned that a few of us received sixty percents because we did not internally site sources correctly. Heart-racing, I had my essay in hand. To my excitement, I was able to earn an eighty-five percent on my first essay of the year. I have never been a super great writer, and I consistently got Bs on my essays in high school. As you may guess, that surprised me tremendously when I got a B on a college essay. I would think that college writing would be harder, and I think in some ways it is. The length of the essay was somewhat difficult for me to manage. Granted, I did expect to get assigned an awful ten page paper like the first week in school. Luckily, that was not the case. I guess you could say writing in college is still pretty difficult, just not as awful as I anticipated.
Other than that, the only other event that took place this week was my second freshman module. We are required to take four modules over the course of our time at TLU, and the freshman module is mandantory for graduation requirements. This week in our module we went over our CEP plans, which are designed as a template for our four year schedule. It was a struggle having to pick all my own classes and being responsible for deciding what I am going to take every semester I am here. Working on these plans just reiterate our freedom of choices we have in college, and the ability to do what we want. We're now adults, who have to decide on our own.
It will be hard to register for classes on my own. As freshman, our first semester was pretty much put together by our advisors, so we didn't have to do that on our own. It will be interesting to see how I manage that on my own.