In Their Own Words: On Gratitude

The research is clear: expressing gratitude is a key component to being a happier person. According to Harvard Health, “Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.” (par. 3) Why is it, that we struggle with following through on the simple habit of being grateful?

One student offers this as their response.

I’ve always felt that gratitude doesn’t come easy to those who have what they need. As a young child I was always fully fed, clothed, and overall well taken care of. When I was younger I also didn’t really know what it meant to be grateful.

Of course I was taught “please” and “I love you” as responses to receiving something, but those words were always hollow shells of what they were supposed to mean. They became an automatic response, a mindless task, nothing. And then my two best friends were introduced into my life. Coming from much less than me L and P (names not used for privacy reasons) were completely different from what I knew. Sure, we all liked the color pink and we all read the same books and watched the same shows, but we were completely different fundamentally. After spending almost every day with them, I had started to notice just how estatic the two of them were when they received something. I also noticed how they didn’t even have to use words to show their gratitude, their actions alone proved it. Slowly I began to catch on and started copying their mannerisms. However, these new practices were not enough for me to fully grasp what gratitude was, and I still didn’t for a couple years.

Then my two best friends, the people I considered sisters, lost it all. Their house was gone, their father disappeared, and their stepmom became a, for lack of better words, complete jerk. It wasn’t until I looked around at my stable home, two loving parents, and the comfort I received everyday that I realized what gratitude truly is.

Gratitude means different things to everyone. For some it’s simply to be thankful, for others the sentiment is more complex. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter what your exact definition is, only that you have a definition that makes sense to you and that you express gratitude whenever and wherever you possibly can.  – H.C.