Thank you for listening to my problems.

Thank you for helping me when I was in need.

Thank you for motivating me to be a better person.

Thank you for everything you’ve done.

People love to say stuff about writing down 5 things you’re grateful for every morning. Start off the day with some gratitude - appreciate what you have. Honestly there’s no way I could think of 5 things to be grateful for that are unique every single day, not without making stuff up.

But there are things I’m constantly thankful for and appreciate in my life. Here are my 5 things I’m grateful for, for Thursday, August 18, 2026:

  1. Thank you to Kaden, for letting me stay at his place while I move in to my new apartment. (Seriously, thanks for everything).
  2. Thank you to my parents, for working hard to give me the opportunity to attend the university I’m attending.
  3. Thank you to my friends for, well, being my friends. Life would be a lot more boring and lonely without you.
  4. Thank you to the numerous people whose websites I viewed and got inspiration from, especially Chloe Yan for https://www.sunlit.place, Jacky Zhao for https://jzhao.xyz, and Awwwards at https://www.awwwards.com!
  5. Thank YOU, dear reader, for reading my silly little blog posts. I hope you’re enjoying them.

It’s difficult to be thankful every day. I go through times in life where I’m just autopiloting along and doing what I need to. Wake up, work, eat, sleep, repeat. When you get into that monotonous rhythm of adulting it gets difficult to stop and smell the roses, per se.

c’est la vie.

However, I’ve been trying to make it a habit to acknowledge the help and support I get - whether it be from people around me or people who don’t care about me or don’t even know me. Gratitude is just one step forward from it, so why not go that extra mile too?

My conscious effort is to express gratitude to other people, no matter how small, no matter how well I know them. Small stuff - saying thank you for giving back my passport, thank you for saying hi, etc. Big stuff - thank you for bringing me to IKEA, thank you for helping me with my website, thank you for buying dinner. And everything in between.

Just being able to express it makes a big difference in how you view the world, in my opinion. A lot of people stay silent, I used to be like that. It’s not an ungrateful thing, it’s just a shy thing I think. Just too shy to say thanks, sometimes. But once I tried to start that habit, it caught on. And I think I feel better about it.

I’ve even done stuff I didn’t normally do.

Stuff like writing out my appreciation on those little post-it notes.

When I went to Japan with Kaden and our friend Kevin, we visited a small little lemon themed cafe called OKK-Setoda near Hiroshima. (I don’t know if it’s called OKK_Setoda, but that’s their Instagram handle) They gave us free paper notes to make paper cranes out of, were very friendly and kind, and made some awesome hot chocolate!

![[hotchoc.jpg]]

We briefly left the cafe to check out the temple across the street, but came back. I really wanted to see what else they had to offer.

![[setoda3.jpg]]

And they had a whole assortment of candy, baked goods, jam, etc. on display! You know I had to get some of that lemon candy to bring back home - and yes, they were pretty good.

![[setoda4.jpg]]

Anyway, back to gratitude.

My friends and I wrote our own little messages on some post-it notes to attach on that wall you see in the picture. Turns out it was something of a custom that people who stop by would leave little thank you notes. Mine was kind of awkward but you get the message. I really appreciated the staff there working in such a small town. It was such a homely feeling cafe and I’d love to go back there again.

![[setoda1.jpg]]

![[setoda2.jpg]]

Doing stuff like that leaves special memories in my heart. Being able to be more thankful is something I’m thankful for. Showing appreciation can also make yourself feel good, it feels like.

Hopefully, we can all become a little more thankful in future. Hopefully, there are more things to be thankful for, as well.

Thanks for reading this post!