It’s A Big Deal To Be Grateful

You got to appreciate my dedication. I am writing in the middle of a power cut. With the last remains of my laptop battery, I want to write about being grateful or … ungrateful, because that is what’s been bugging me.

The thing is this.

We are the sum of our experiences. You heard that one before, right? Well, that is because it’s true. Even Freud or … especially Freud would agree with me on this one. Think of all the good things, then add the bad ones, then the weird experiences, then the situations when you didn’t think you can make it out alive. All of those are you in all your splendor. Celebrate it!

But let me ask you this. When a good thing happens to you — may it be that promotion that you always thought you deserve or the fact that you finally got to meet the love of your life or that you got to see that one wonderful thing you never thought you would — do you look back and thank the ones who brought you there? A parent, maybe a spouse or a partner, a teacher, a friend, even somebody that you don’t really like that much, but who made it all possible at the time …

I think it takes balls to be grateful to somebody…

… To admit that you couldn’t have achieved that one thing without their help. People who say they made it on their own are lying. There is always that catalyzer, the silent partner who doesn’t take credit, the parent who you think he or she doesn’t need recognizing. There is always somebody.

I’ve always been outraged by ungratefulness.

Merely because I have been put in situations when I did something for somebody whom I loved. They took it for granted and never recognized my help. And don’t get me wrong. Sure, everybody likes back patting, but that is not what I was after. I was after the truth. My contribution needn’t be acknowledged, but I also didn’t like somebody else to take credit for it.

So yeah, it’s a big deal to be grateful.

To go back and say thank you and bow your head in humility. Nothing to be ashamed of. It doesn’t make you any less of a fighter, it doesn’t make you less great, on the contrary. So step up. Have balls and say it: “I am here because you helped me this far, so thank you!”