It's the summer of 2019 and I'm interning at Tchoup Industries in New Orleans. It's a Tuesday morning and I have just driven from my dad's house on the Northshore to Tchoup's storefront in the Lower Garden District, it takes about an hour. This is my first Tuesday working at Tchoup. I come in as usual and Patti, the owner and designer, says that Tuesday mornings are for the team to meet and discuss what's to come in the following week and that I am more than welcome to join in.
"We start with gratitude practice," she says.
I don't quite understand, but I agree and I sit and listen while those before me take their turn outlining all the things they are grateful for that morning. It becomes my turn to speak and the only thing I can muster is:
"Um... I'm grateful to be here?"
It was true, I was grateful to be there, but it wasn't the full truth. I was also terrified, anxious, self conscious, and so incredibly shy. That's all I could think about. I didn't have room to grateful because I was so consumed with self-doubt.
I'm done with that now.
Every day, I make a conscious effort to notice and appreciate all of the people and things that make my life worth it. In doing this, I've changed the way I perceive the world and myself. Now, there's no room to dwell on my perceived inadequacies. I'm consumed with gratitude.