Gratitude #1

Back in 2020 when the COVID fiasco began, I was in the middle of writing a series of gratitude posts. It ended up being really helpful for me to be focused on gratitude during those early days of lockdown. Being the season of Thanksgiving (and being inhibited by writer's block lately), I've been thinking about doing some gratitude posts, and I stumbled across the prompt I used in 2020 and want to use it again. 

Just for funsies, I'm not going to go back and read what I wrote for each prompt in 2020 until I've written my post for 2025. I don't remember what I wrote last time, so I think it will be interesting to see how similar/different my posts end up being after five (almost six!) years have passed. Exciting, isn't it? 

Due to waiting until very close to Thanksgiving to start this challenge, I should probably get right to it. (Let's see... ten prompts and 13 days until Thanksgiving. I might be able to handle that). 

The first prompt:

A strength of mine for which I am grateful is...

Being good with names. 

This is a gift the Lord has blessed me with. I remember names, faces, and things about people pretty well. Every now and then there will be someone who won't "stick," but that's not very common. Most of the time, I know who people are, and I remember them. Sometimes I suppress this skill because I don't want to freak people out. Imagine me saying to you, "I actually know who you are. My friend dated your younger brother in high school, and my parents bought their house from your grandma," or "I've never formally met you, but my mom and your ex-husband's mom used to work together, and your new husband's parents are in my ward." That is what's going on in my brain, but I keep it hushed. 

I do think it's nice to be known, though, so I'm grateful that I have this strength. I feel like it helps me be a better friend, community member, and teacher. If I'm teaching a class, I'm able to call on everyone by name, and if it's a group of people I've never met, I can have 90% of their names down if I just have them go around the room and say their names.

When I was in elementary school, it was a dream of mine to have the entire student body line up on the playground and let me go down the line and see if I could name everyone in the school. 

(Sidenote: I have a friend who did something like this in high school, but it was identifying everyone's bare feet as we all stood behind a curtain. She was a freak. And she's still a freak. But now she's a licensed foot zoner). 

My friend, Christie, has this gift as well, and watching her "know" everybody has inspired me to hone in on this strength. 

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Last time I did this prompt, I wrote about my love of learning. That is another strength I remain thankful for.