Sawadee ka fellow learn-it-all 👋

Greetings from Chiang Rai, Thailand!

Above is a photo of the Buddha at the entrance to the school where I teach, sleep and eat. Pretty right?!

This morning, my co-teacher Pi Kop in the Foreign Language department asked me, “Teacher Jen, are you happy?”

“No.”

“Why arean’t you happy?”

“I’m a bit sad. I miss my family, and I wish I were there to celebrate Thanksgiving with them.”

“Well, I want you to know that I wish I were like you when I was your age. I see you as this strong, confident American woman who stands strong on her feet.”

Perception is such an interesting thing. I look at others, and they are much stronger and more confident than me, but to Pi Kop, I am the very thing she never has felt.

Today to celebrate Thanksgiving while abroad for the first time outside of America, I’ll express gratitude.

My past self wrote 🙏 Gratitude for 100 Things & a Modern Day Grace last year and she is inspiring me to create a new list of 100 gratitudes.

Now, let’s dive into letter 238 from a learn-it-all. Enjoy!

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❓Question to think about

What am I grateful for?

🔍Word to define

Grateful: (adj) feeling or showing an appreciation of kindness; thankful.

🖊️Writing

I’ve cut up the good things in my life into a few buckets: World, Family, Health, Things, Friends, Thailand, Thai teachers, Technology and Media, and My Younger Self.

I hope these inspire you and I invite you to do the same. 😊

🌏 World

1. The creator of this beautiful world
2. The people in this world that connect with me and make my existence feel less alone
3. The trees that create oxygen for me to breath and nourishment
4. The water that provides the life with health, transportation, and play
5. The blue sky that calms me and the clouds that remind me my thoughts are just thoughts

🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Family

6. My ancestors who lived out the American Dream, including their qualities like Omi’s kindness, Wim’s loyalty, Dziadzia’s grit, and Basia’s support
7. My dad and his curiosity with late-night texts with Wikipedia pages on Charles Darwin
8. My mom and her spirit of service to everyone around her and the community
9. My brother’s determination and support to make me a running plan
10. My sister and how she understands me
11. My Aunt Linda and her encouragement in my business endeavors
12. My cousin Matthew and Uncle Matt and their listening ears
13. My cousin Christa and her silliness
14. My cousin Christina and her empathy
15. My cousin Joos’ courage and all the other family I have in the Netherlands. It’s so interesting to share life with them
16. My pets. Smudge and her peeps, Paisley’s devotion as a scout, Twinkie and her insatiable yearning for Temptations treats, Hummer’s inquisitiveness about nature, mischievous Bubba, and Polo’s sea-otterness while swimming.

❤️ Health

17. My body that allows me to move
18. My family and friends are in good health
19. My right foot is getting less swollen by the day
20. My chest cold is gone and my chest feels clear
21. Sleeping a full 8 hours each night, most nights
22. My smile that I love sharing with strangers— the friends I have yet to make
23. Tastebuds that allow food to bring me joy, especially the richness of frothy milk or creamy chocolate
24. The receptors in my nose that allow me to smell all scents, from rotten eggs to the goodness of gardenias
25. The vibrations that my ear drums receive and send to my auditory nerves allowing me to hear
26. Glasses and contacts that allow me to see teh world with crystal clear vision
27. Warmth I feel from hugging others

💧 Things

28. Access to drinking water
29. Air conditioning in my bedroom (even though it leaks)
30. My US passport which allows me to leave my country and enter other ones
31. A roof over my head
32. Two power plugs in my home that allow me to charge my phone and power a mini fridge
33. My nightlight that enables me to journal at night
34. My warm lightbulbs that calm my nervous system at night
35. My paycheck to afford to eat
36. Accessibility to food
37. Language to communicate, talk, and feel connected to others
38. Symbols to send messages via text message,
39. My ghost brooks running shoes that I’ve run 250 miles in this year
40. The letters that I’ve been writing

👩🏻‍🏫 Thai Co-teachers, Students, and Job

41. Emily for being my constant pal that I live with and express reflections on life with
42. The support of the other foreign language teachers Pi Soi, Pi Goy, Nong Dada, Pi Ay, Pi Kristy, and Pi Mary
43. Pi Noon and her unwavering support to be there as I get lost in lesson planning
44. The inspiration I feel from the dreams of my 12th grade students. Adele wants to study in Japan to become a doctor. Peter Parker dreams of becoming a freelance programmer, cyber security hacker, AI engineer and fullstack developer. Jiaqi dreams of being a driver of Formula 1, an engineer and lawyer.
45. The laughter I feel from my 8th grade students like Jiggapu and Tonnaum as I had them read about Fat Bear Week in Alaska outloud.
46. Saipin who invited me into her village in Maemon and to stay with her family last weekend
47. Jam and Jammy who took me to the night bazaar on my first night
48. Boom who got me from the airport the night I arrived to Chiang Rai and all the questions she’s answered to me. Also for printing my documents
49. Guuy who bought me coffee last week
50. Dream, La Oh Pan and Billie who I’ve been playing tennis with after school on Tuesdays
51. August who invited me to play volleyball with her and her 8th grade friends
52. Puna who likes to go running with me
53. The two technologists who have come to my “Smart” classroom days in a row to help me figure out how to connect my incompatible Macbook to the screen
54. To Princess Chulabhorn Science School for employing me. I’ve never felt like I’ve earned a paycheck more than this first one I receievd a few days ago

❤️ Friends

55. Cafe hangs and chats with Katherine
56. Kate, for her initiative to book the elephant sanctuary this weekend
57. Liv’s love for laughing and trees
58. Bella’s passion for new things
59. Emily’s creativity to design a life full of love
60. Carter Anne’s adventurous spirit
61. Tom’s seeking of novelty
62. Stefen’s musical effort and talent
63. Cassidy’s inspiring bike challenges
64. Allison’s determination in residency
65. Alivia’s zest on her sabbatical
66. Chan’s passion for singing Ed Sheeran
67. Svenja’s curiosity of menstrual cycles

🇹🇭 Thailand

68. The land covered in smiles for allowing me to be a guest in their country
69. I’ve barely scratched the surface of where I can go or experience, especially the temples
70. The friends who have driven me around and the Grab drivers
71. The elephants I am stoked to see this weekend
72. The buses that make it easy for me to see more places
73. Tasty dishes like Khao Soi, Pad Thai, Fish Tom Yum Soup, Som Tam (papaya salad), Squishy Tofu
74. Fruits like Mango sticky rice, Sohm (oranges), Apple Bananas, Strawberry guava, and Passionfruit and how the seeds explode in my mouth
75. Maemon Village where I was humbled as a guest of this past weekend hearing them speak Akha dialect of Thai
76. The stray dogs that have spared me from any bites or rabies

📡 Technology and Media

77. Internet.
78. My notes app and Notion for organizing my ideas, dreams, questions, reflections and projects.
79. My Supernote journal that I’ve been experimenting with a more minimalistic analog journaling experience.
80. Voice notes
81. My Garmin watch for affirming my rest with the surprising score of 100 yesterday morning
82. Amazon KDP for making the printing and distributing of my book seamless without giving me more work.
83. My Thai number, apple Id and True Internet package that allows me to stay in touch with to loves ones that are 8,140 miles on the other side of the world
84. Texting platforms like iMessage, WhatsApp, and Line
85. Twitter and the ideas that spark new connections for me
86. Books where I collect beautiful ideas from
87. Photos library that spark inspiration from photos I’ve taken
88. My Kodak film camera, GoPro, Sony camera, and iPhone that enable me to take photos to capture the moments of my life
89. My Airpods that enable me to listen to music and podcasts.
90. Spotify where I can minimalistically listen to albums of music that I love, espeically from Noah Kahan, Maggie Rogers, Mike Posner and Yiruma.
91. Movies. Especially Disney, Action, and RomComs. Watching Wicked on Wednesday night is such a highlight of my week. The fun soundtrack is stuck in my head.

👧🏻 My younger self

92. My optimistic outlook on life
93. The ability to learn and remember
94. Learning to save money at a young age
95. Leaving Michigan to get a college diploma by living in Ohio for 4 years, which enabled me to get this job teaching in Thailand
96. Learning to swim, which brings me peace everywhere I travel
97. Seeing an orthodontist to get a retainer, braces, headgear, and rubberbands to have a smile I enjoy sharing
98. Going to Hawaii, which gave me the courage to move to Thailand
99. My self-awareness to realize my spirit was low where I was living, and I needed to change
100. Taking advantage of my freedom as a human in this world to explore

🎧Listening

Beautiful Day by Mike Posner

How was I so selfish? The money never helped it
Keep checking all my messages, I'm done being a pessimist
The old way wasn't working, so I gotta put that work in
I know I'm far from perfect, but it's time for a change

It's a beautiful day to be alive
It's a beautiful day to be alive ('live)
So if you've got love, then give it away
Here's to the joy and the pain
It's a beautiful day to be alive

I mentioned this song already in 🤸‍♀️Limboing through life in October. It’s so good I gotta share it again. :)

🌟Quote to inspire

"We spend a lot of time talking about everything we have to do. You have to finish 10 things at work. You have to exercise today. You have to cook dinner for your family. Now, change one word in each sentence.
You don’t “have” to. You “get” to.
You get to finish 10 things at work. You get to exercise today. You get to cook dinner for your family. The right perspective transforms your burdens into opportunities."

—James Clear

📸Photo of the Week

Christmas spirit is coming in strong in Thailand with the Lanna Winter Wonderland Festival :)

🙏Shoutouts

• To everything and everyone listed above, thank you. And to all you who have been reading these letters, thank you.

I appreciate you reading this!

If ideas resonated, I’d love you to press the heart button, leave a comment, reply to this email, or reach me at vermetjl@gmail.com.

Keep on learning 😁

Ka poon ka 🌺

Jen

PS - in case you missed last week, I wrote some poems about 🌌 Wishes, Floating Lanterns, and Thai Tuk-tuks

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