Growing up, Thanksgiving was by far my favorite holiday and the one thing that I always remember doing was what we called the Thankful Tree. Mom would draw a tree on poster board and we would cut out leaves out of construction paper and every day through the month of November we would write things we were thankful on the leaves. As time progressed the tree began to grow full of various colors and of the many things that we are thankful for in this life be them big or small. I am thankful for my mom starting this tradition as it taught me that life is full of blessings that we often forget as we go through our daily life.
As this Thanksgiving approached I decide to carry on the tradition at my apartment but in a larger scale. My roommate and I decided that a large section of wall needed some color besides a pale color of white and so my creative juices began to flow as I searched Pinterest for any sort of idea. As I saw the various fall ideas I came up with the idea of recreating the Thankful Tree out of poster board and cutting the leaves out of patterned cardstock, kind of like a quilt. I collected all the needed articles which included black poster board, patterned cardstock, scissors, tape and blue tack. It was a little more tricky then I thought to draw out the shape of the tree and branches but after about an hour I was successful in creating something that resembled a tree. My roommate helped me out by giving suggestions and holding it up against the wall so that I could get a good idea of what I needed to trim.
As the month has passed the tree has grown with many thanks and has helped to remind me that there are so many things to be thankful for that we often forget or take advantage of. I am thankful for my mom starting this tradition and that I got the opportunity to continue it and to introduce my friends to it.
~Laura Arminta
