Giving Thanks - What it Means to Express Gratitude
November 27th, 2025
Writer: Emmylou Ethan
Editor: Sophia Wohl
I don’t think I ever deeply understood the meaning of gratitude until the day someone I loved, someone whose presence I never questioned, someone I just assumed would always be there… almost wasn’t.
Before that, gratitude was just an automatic reaction.
A word my family tossed around before digging into Thanksgiving dinner.
A polite reflex when someone held a door or did a small favor for me. A lighthearted smile before clinking glasses while listing off what we appreciate about the world.
It was rarely something I felt deeply or thought about for more than a few seconds.
I didn’t know any better. My life felt familiar and comfortable. And when everything feels that way, you don’t picture anything changing. You don’t imagine the people you love not being around. You just keep moving, assuming your tomorrow will look exactly like your today.
Until suddenly, you’d give anything to go back and appreciate the moments that quietly slipped past you. The little things that now feel huge.
Everyone has a moment where their heart just drops. When everything is happening so fast but somehow feels painfully slow. You can’t focus, yet every small moment you ever overlooked rushes back at once. All the things you never thought twice about replay in your head, making you wish you had just paid a little more attention.
That’s when it hit me: you don’t understand the magnitude of the little things until you’re forced to imagine they’re gone.
For me, the moment passed, and things were technically okay again, but something in me altered. The little things I used to overlook suddenly carried more weight.
Since then, I’ve tried to notice everything.
The “just got home” text from a friend that reassures me more than it used to.
A goodbye hug that lingers a second longer.
The sound of someone I love walking through the front door as my dogs jump all over them.
All the things I once considered background noise now felt louder, and the gratitude I hold onto now has left me with one message I try to carry:
See it while it’s here.
Gratitude used to be automatic.
Now it’s remembering that nothing is promised. Once you learn that, it sticks for good.
