That Cold Night in Queens

   It was a Thursday night in late November of 2012. I was sitting alone on a stump in a dark church courtyard. Police cars roamed the streets around me with their blues flashing; trying to provide citizens with some sense of security. The neighborhood was in a constant state of emergency, as it had been for nearly a month now. It had only been dark for an hour or so but the streets were completely abandoned. Across the street from the church a pair of shattered shop windows seemed to stare at me like dark empty eyes. I poked at the last of my Thanksgiving dinner–a few undercooked green beans–with a disposable fork and sipped the last water from my cup. I zipped up my jacket as a cold wind blew through the empty courtyard and turned to head back into the old church, but for a moment I paused and looked around.
    In my entire life, I have never been more thankful than I was in that moment, and here is why. On that cold Thanksgiving night in 2012 I was in Queens, New York. One month earlier Super-storm Sandy had wrecked hundreds of communities along the East Coast. Somehow I found myself on a last-minute trip to help provide relief where it was needed most. A van full of students from App State drove all day Wednesday to a small community called Far Rockaway to help residents in low-income communities with reconstruction efforts. In the overall scheme of recovery, a van full of students armed with gloves and hammers couldn't accomplish much in three days, but given one or two houses to help out with we were able to accomplish a great deal.
   Lots of great memories were made on that trip–some happy and some heart-wrenchingly sad. But among the others one memory stood out–the memory I have of sitting alone in the cold that Thursday night. It stands out to me because I took the time to reflect on the ways I have been blessed in my life. I have a warm home to spend cold nights in, a roof that doesn't leak, and walls that are not moldy. I have a family who loves me, and friends I can turn to when things get tough.
   On that cold Thanksgiving night, surrounded by people who didn't have much, I realized just how much I had to be thankful for. No matter how tough school gets, or how much I worry about what I'll be doing next year after graduation, at least I was given the chance to go to school. What I am trying to say is–as frustrating as it can be, my life is so remarkably blessed. I get upset when one or two things go wrong, but there are other blessings that I often take for granted because they worked out so perfectly. This week I am working on being more thankful, and I continue to mentally revisit that cold night in Queens when I realized how much I really have been given.