With so many people out there, chances are there is someone who worked a little harder than you, and a little worse off. Whether we want to admit it or not, luck is a factor for all of us. Even when things aren’t going exactly right, there’s always something to be grateful for. As the saying goes, “When life hands you a lemon…”

So here goes my list of a few of the things I’m grateful for.

Being Fugal almost to the point of being cheap. I’ve managed to have a positive savings rate every year since undergrad. Some years the savings rate wasn’t great: the year I moved out to California, the year I started grad school, etc. And sure some years I would watch my friends and peers buy expensive toys and go on lavish vacations that I would love to go on. But in the end, being frugal is a great skill set for weathering a rough economy.

Being Spatially Oriented. One thing I talked about in my previous incarnation of my blog, that I’ve yet to mention this time is that I am dyslexic. My reading rate is in the bottom 4th percentile of college freshman. While that aspect of dyslexia bites, the benefit of is is that I’m very spatially oriented. I can (usually) figure out which lane I want to be in, or how to get started direction wise without a map because of it. It also comes in very handy when using the Map-Reduce framework for handling big data, which has turned out to be a valuable skill. I’ve often found I can get results faster than the average intern because of it.

Being Creative. It means fun projects that I get to decorate. It also comes in handy for problem solving, and I think one of the reasons I tend to have a happy outlook on life. Issues become challenges to solve, rather than problems to face.

And of course, there’s always baking. Who can stay frustrated when there’s chocolate cake in the oven?

Posted in Life