COWBIRD: "THANK YOU!" JOURNAL
Merci. Danke. Salamat. Gracias. Oh the many ways to say thank you! Thank you stranger for being you. Sometimes I want to thank people for doing simple things they are unaware of doing, but I just don't know how to express my gratitude. I want to thank my parents, my best friend, and even the stranger walking their dog on the street, for being an inspiration to me. I know in society we normally say the phrase "thank you" after someone has done us a favor, no matter how small. It is sort of an unconscious thing to do when someone passes the bread rolls at dinner, to say "thank you"; but I wonder about how important and rare the phrase used to be. Nowadays it has lost its true meaning and is overused. Sometimes people don't have enough time to say "thank you", and simply shorten it to "thanks". It is so frequently said that "thank you very much", doesn't even mean much more than "thank you". I'd like to thank my best friend for teaching me to be selfless and humble. I'd like to thank my parents for instilling an industrious work ethic in me since a young age. I'd like to thank the kind stranger who opened the door for me in the rain. I'd like to thank the silent girl in the corner for showing me what honesty and being yourself means. To the fellow classmate who taught me that with enthusiasm and optimism we will always find hope in difficult times. And to the boy who taught me that you can never be overconfident or too ambitious if you put your words into actions. I realize now how "thank you" is a small and yet big phrase. It's up to the person saying it to preserve the importance and sincerity of it.
Here is a really unorthodox and creative video that personally inspires me, and I think captures the meaning of being grateful.