As Thanksgiving fast approaches us, you might be looking forward to the short break before the finals floodgates open up, lots of great home-cooked food, the opportunity to see friends and family members, or even the upcoming retail deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
However, I encourage all of you to take some time to go back to what should be the spirit of Thanksgiving, which is expressing your appreciation for things you don’t normally express it for. It’s hard to realize just how much you may take some things for granted or how much you may take some people for granted. There might be some, like your best friends, who you know you are grateful for all the time, but there are also many other people who have impacted you that you might not think of on a daily basis. Let’s take this opportunity to get back into the spirit of giving thanks to those around us. Here are some of the people on campus who you should express appreciation for.
Your boss: Many of you have part-time jobs, and whether they are on-campus or off-campus, take a moment to thank your boss, especially if they’re the ones who hired you. It’s easy to hate bosses, and some of them might not be the greatest, but if you have a healthy relationship with them, try giving them a short hand-written note to say thanks for hiring me or thanks for helping me out or being understanding of my schedule and recognizing that you’re a student too.
Your coworkers: Perhaps your boss isn’t someone you are particularly grateful for, but on the flip side, your coworkers might be. If you have even one coworker you enjoy procrastinating actual work with or churning the rumor mill with, let them know they make your shifts something to look forward to.
Eick/Stud/Lib or Ed Cafe workers: While campus food might not be anything to be grateful for, some of the workers at the foodstations are. If you are a regular at any of the stations in the stud, or there’s that one person in the Lib cafe who always remembers your name or order or makes you smile, tell them you appreciate them for what they do and you just might make their day.
Special professors: Usually, professors are not the people we feel the most grateful to, because they’re the most salient of our stressors, but maybe you have one professor who has been super supportive of you, or who has been understanding with crazy schedules and personal circumstances, or who just makes what would otherwise be a very dull lecture entertaining. If you do, write them a heartfelt note and give it to them before the break. A little kindness is never a bad thing.
Program or Department Assistants: You might not interact with these people very regularly, but if you do, or if they’ve helped you with a particular hurdle, make sure you let them know their work was valuable. They might have helped you get into a class you needed that filled up too quickly or helped you bypass a prerequisite or get some forms signed; whatever they did, tell them you’re grateful for it.
Tutors: If you have a peer tutor for one of your classes and you find that they’re actually saving your grade in that class, tell them they’re helping. If you know that you couldn’t have made it this far without their help in the class, or you just appreciate them being a cool tutor and giving you the inside scoop on professors and the department, they deserve to know.