Today is a day to take a step back from the crazy world we live in and give thanks.
It’s very easy to lose sight of that and I’ll be the first to acknowledge that. We live in a hyper fast environment of 24/7 news cycles and nonstop negativity on the news – especially over the past 20 months so it’s easy to feed into that negativity. It’s easy to see bills piling up and looking at social media and seeing all the evil in the world.
Or you can choose to take the glass half full approach and realize, if you were lucky to wake up today you are already living a wonderful life. If you have a roof over your head, a warm meal on the table with your loved ones next to you, then you have it better than the majority of people living in the world.
The way I see it, it’s easy to complain about how you wish things were better, how much more money you wish you had and how much further along you should be – but that gets you nowhere. The better approach is to say, if I went through all of those tough times and none of that broke me, none of that dashed my dreams, then what will? Seriously, we are living in a time where you have more resources at your finger tips than every before. So instead of complaining, look at it as if we are blessed to live in this digital era where you can make a living, follow your dreams and you don’t even need to relocate to the other side of the country to do so.
With that said, here’s what I am most thankful for on this Thanksgiving 2021.
- Health
I got Covid back in July and it was bad. Not only did I have the loss of smell/taste, body aches and fever like most mild cases, but I also struggled to breathe as my oxygen dipped down into the high 80s every night. It was scary and on top of that aspect, the Axcess Invitational was on July 22 so I was worried I wouldn’t be able to make it there which would’ve been a disaster. Thankfully, I bounced back by then once I got on the right medication and I was able to recover to 100% but anybody that says it’s nothing, they didn’t go through a serious case like mine.
2. Family
I lost my father when I was 21, I’ve lost all four of my grandparents in the past four years. So I have dealt with a significant amount of loss in my life, but it does put things in perspective. You appreciate the ones that are still there. I’m lucky to have my mother, I have a brother I have plenty of cousins, aunts, uncles and my wife and her parents and brother. So I still have people that I care about and people that I need to think about aside from myself. Eventually I’ll have my own kids and life will take on a whole new meaning but in the meantime I will appreciate the ones in my life. When it comes to my mom, I’m lucky that she was patient and let me live in her house until I was 27 so I could build this business, and my wife puts up with my crazy work hours, and that’s not to be taken for granted.
3. Baseball
If I had to work in a cubicle, or on a train or in a car dealership or any other traditional job I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. I’ve had other jobs – I’ve worked at Party City in HS, I worked at Lombardi’s on the Bay for years, I worked as a door-to-door salesman for Verizon Fios, and with the exception of maybe bartending when I was 21,22 years old, none of it was the least bit enjoyable. When it comes to what I do, it checks off all the boxes. When I was interning for town papers, I always said I really like writing about baseball and covering games but it’s just not the same when you are working for someone. Once I launched my business, it reinvigorated me. Being able to make my own hours, operate on my timeframe, make the money, form relationships on the field and also get the winter off – now that’s what is fulfilling.
4. The Axcess Audience
I could tweet until I’m blue in the face, but if nobody was reading it then this would’ve fell flat years ago. It really is a blessing that people consume what I have to say, and it’s continued to grow and allow me to still be doing this several years later. Getting recognized in public is not something I ever anticipated, but it is nice to know people care. I really am thankful that people are so nice when we meet in public and can talk. It’s not something that is lost on me.
