I'm thankful for our new bedframe and mattress that we were able to buy late last year, which unlike the old one doesn't collapse if you lean on the wrong slat; I'm thankful I got to help dismantle the old bed, to see just how broken it really was, and that I was able to laugh at it since we don't have to sleep on it any more.

I'm thankful for the first-year French grammar class I'm teaching this year, since it allows me to re-remember my previously half-forgotten French grammar skills while also showing the students new things. I'm thankful that I can feel myself growing in confidence week by week, both as a teacher and in my reinforced grammar knowledge. I'm thankful that in my mid-twenties I finally really understand the French subjunctive, and hopefully helped some university students understand it too.

I'm thankful I finally decided to buy my first fountain pen, mostly due to the influence of the Pen Addict podcast. I'm thankful for left-handed nibs, which although I'm 90% sure are just placebos, seem to enable me to write legibly with a fountain pen for the first time in my life. I'm thankful for graph-paper notebooks, which somehow make my writing look neater than lined and also provide stricter, strangely calming page borders.

I'm thankful for the job application I submitted for what looks on paper like my dream job, even though it's getting more likely I wasn't successful. I'm thankful for the opportunity to be ambitious, for the opportunity to try, to believe I could land the perfect job for me -- even for just a little while. 

I'm thankful for the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge, which allowed me to get back into reading after my PhD and has reminded me that I can still read fast and still read for pleasure. Relatedly, I'm thankful for the large number of book tokens I received for Christmas this year, meaning I can buy a far wider range of books than I could normally afford.

I'm thankful that sunny days are becoming more frequent, making the time I spent walking every day much more enjoyable. I'm thankful that I work in a location which is nice to walk around and which offers so much to see while I'm doing it. I'm thankful I can get reasonably priced coffee close by once I'm done walking.

Finally, I'm thankful that I submitted my PhD on time, incredibly tired but otherwise largely unscathed. I'm thankful for the break I had before I need to start preparing to defend it (i.e., right about now). I'm thankful that I did my PhD in the first place, and I'm thankful for the months I spent finishing it where life was subsumed and reduced to wake up-type-sleep-teach-type, since its absence, the space left in my life where I don't have to work on my thesis any more, can now be filled by all the things I had to postpone for the 4 years of research; reading for pleasure, going places, watching films, keeping up more-or-less with popular culture I enjoy, going to the park, going out for meals, mostly (but not entirely) free of the nagging internal narrative, 'you should be writing'. I'm thankful that I can acknowledge the work I have done, that is concrete and tangible, as I try and work out just what I can do with it. I've been a student for the entirety of my adult life, but I can't be a student much longer. It's time, they tell me, to find a fulfilling career, somehow. I'm thankful that I never really considered getting my PhD a means to a definite end, and I'm thankful that doing it will give me a number of options.

- L (2/22/16).