Gratitude

It’s Thanksgiving week and 2025 is quickly coming to an end. My employment might also be coming to an end. Layoffs were announced and I will find out if I’m part of RIF by mid-December. A great way to celebrate my Christmas and my 50th birthday, unemployed.

In uncertain times like this, it’s important to remind myself that life is still, for the most part, good. It’s a time to be grateful and appreciate all I have, not to dwell on the bad. So let’s give gratitude.

I am grateful for my health. Is there anything more important than health? I don’t have any chronic illness or disease. At my age, my dad had all kinds of health problems. I know a couple of people from college who have battled cancer and the like. Even my sister has some health issues. Frankly, I haven’t felt this great physically in a long time. Been exercising for a few months now and I feel amazing and sleep so much better. If I just cut alcohol I’d probably be top 10% healthy.

I am grateful for my financial cushion. While I have squandered a small fortune on the proverbial hookers and blow, I still managed to amass a decent emergency fund. Up until around my 41 years old I was literal paycheck to paycheck. I felt invincible, either I would never get laid off or I could find a job in a few weeks. In hindsight, I was semi-delusional. While my savings and investment could be a lot more, I am still grateful that I did mature financially in the last few years.

I am grateful for not being dead, in jail or similar. It still shocks me that I’ve lived a fairly trouble free life. Not going to pretend I was some kid who made it out of the streets of Compton, but I have engaged in numerous risky behaviors. Behaviors that could have resulted in serious death or injuries. Or serious financial ruins. Or serious jail time. While pledging my college fraternity I could have easily died of alcohol poisoning. When I got my Porsche 911 I was doing 150mph on public freeways on the way to Oregon, nearly causing a head on collision. I’ve started fights where the other guy 100 pounds on me. Occasionally I would see a news story and think, “man, this unlucky guy really destroyed his life with just one momentary bad decision.” That could have easily been me. Will my luck run out? Don’t know. But I am thankful that I’ve been lucky for as long as I have been.

I am grateful for my family. We are not the closest. We don’t talk often. I have some resentment of how they raised me. But we are still family. We still love each other. We are not estranged. We don’t fight. We don’t backstab. In world where family is not a given, I appreciate that I am not alone.

I am grateful for my career. While my career is in turmoil right now due to offshoring, AI and saturation, it’s been a damn good career for almost three decades. And the thing is, I just lucked into. Some people know exactly what they want to do after college. They picked the corresponding major and do the relevant internships, then go onto their careers. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I barely graduated, essentially flunking my senior year, with absolutely no clue what I was going to do post college. But the timing was right and got lucky because I was an engineering major, and the rest is history. So while things don’t look great for my field going forward, I can’t really complain. For the better part of 30 years I’ve been well compensated in a stable job market, all the while being fairy low stress. Burnout is just something I just haven’t experience. Toxic bosses, nope. Maybe those things are in my future but I am still grateful for 30 years of the good times.

I’ll stop at five gratitudes for now. Until next time, appreciate all you have.