Thankful for ______________

This Thanksgiving I would to thank everyone who's in my 5th period English class. All of you give such thoughtful opinions during our numerous discussions in that class (even Mr. McCarthy who gives us all those journal prompts and question that let us learn so much about each other. I would like to thank Kyla, Kayla, Calista, Keduse, Spencer, Jennifer, and Jonathon for being great group work partners. I probably would have been lost and confused half the time if it wasn't for them. Jonathon and Jennifer are great group partners and even though we answer the questions so slowly, they still give great answers. I would also like to thank them for only judging me for my writing and not for my craziness..... They give great advice and critique on my writings.
I would like to thank Elli and Spencer for telling me what the questions were whenever I lose my sheet. I would like to thank Amanda, Claire, and Maggie for often helping me refresh my memory on what we had read the previous night. I would like to thank Amanda and Gissel for their food contributions to my stomach. I would like to give a big thank you to Mr. McCarthy for being a great teacher and understanding us. So at last I would like to thank everyone again and I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving holiday and Black Friday shopping if you're going.
PS in case you're going shopping, turkey makes you sleepy.

I Celebrate Myself

To celebrate yourself, is to be happy about who you are, but is it who you actually are or who you're pretending to be? We've probably all heard of the kids who change themselves in order to be more popular or just "fit in with the crowd". Transcendentalists believe that religion and government has ruined and spoiled all of societ and that we can all rise about who we are now. Religion and government has many times set the guidelines for what is accepted and what isn't. I feel like religion should be like the law, even though that isn't great either. In the case of law, a murder case where self-defense was in play is way more understandable then just a homicide for money. For many religions, sins are sins no matter what. Society has taught us all who we can be and can't be. One example of religion and government is the issue of same sex marriage. Religions has it as a sin and the government says it shouldn't be done. We are sort of becoming transcendentalists ourself because we found out that we can overcome this and many other taboos that have been set for us, about 20% of US states has already legalized same sex marriages. 
What do I celebrate myself for?! I'll give you the answer that my mom and many others have said for me. I'm happy about the fact that I'm very acceptant of other people and I can't quickly judge people. I celebrate the fact that I'm able to do so many things and that I've managed to overcome many obstacles. I just celebrate the fact that I can be helping others as well as myself.