1. I can go into a grocery store and buy whatever I want without once thinking about the price of something or the total bill. It's an incredible privilege - one that I hadn't really thought about much until recently - but now I can't stop thinking how thankful I am for it.
2. I can go home to my parent's house whenever I want and I'm lucky to have supportive, loving parents and an extended family that openly supports me when I need it. We have our problems, but at the end of the day - I have a place to stay and food to eat even in my darkest moments.
3. A promising career in Silicon Valley and a great manager with whom I share a deep sense of mutual respect and friendship with. I know how rare this is, and because of that - I'm thankful.
A lot of work went into making this happen from a lot of different people over the years...so I'm actually really deeply thankful because this could have played out very differently.
Growing up, my family was lower-middle class, immigrant, and moved around _a lot_ because of instability in finances and my father's job was so uncertain that it could be axed on short notice among other reasons. I was a child for the early parts of the journey so only my parents can speak to the brutal pain of trying to start over in a brand new country that barely accepted them for who they are along with the burden of raising their first child. Not only that, but they started over with few resources - maybe the clothes on their back, a couple hundred bucks in their pocket and a few phone numbers to call if they were really in trouble. They/We did not have it easy by any stretch of the imagination and my parents themselves come from relative poverty where things like access to food, electricity, clean water and education was a real issue. We've come a long way and I'm both proud and thankful for that.
This only scratches the surface of the immigrant experience in America but I think it's highly relevant, especially during Thanksgiving and all the history imbued in the holiday.