As Thanksgiving is upon us, I thought I would take this opportunity to reflect on some of the things that I am thankful for.

I am thankful...

• For my family. I love my family. My parents are amazing and so patient with me. I have wonderful siblings and in-laws, and the cutest nieces and nephews ever! Through the best and crappiest times, my family has always been there and I am forever grateful for all their support.

• That I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I love the gospel. I am so thankful for the knowledge that I have and for the joy it brings to my life.

• For my friends. I have the best friends and we have had the best times- trips to Vegas and California, geocaching, cookie adventures, cheese parties, Kmart commercials, so many concerts, and just laughing so hard (aka Body Flex, the upsetting death of Nicole Kidman, and... what do you do with a drunken sailor?). I love you guys.

• For school. I know I complain about school all the time and my usual response to "Laura, how was school?" is "I hate school!" but really I'm very thankful for my education. Even though school has taken me far too long and a normal person would have their PhD by now, school has been the best experience and something I will always be glad I did. And as much as I am thankful for school, I am even more thankful that I will be graduating in May. Hooray!

• That I have a job. We all know the economy sucks right now- companies are going under, people are losing their jobs left and right, and those that are unemployed are having a heck of a time finding a job. I don't have the best job, but I'm glad that I have one. I work with great people and for a great company. They have always been good to me.

We all have so much to be thankful for even though life sucks sometimes. Be thankful for what you have. We have a lot.