Entrepreneurial Journal Week 13

Gratitude is a topic that I've always felt strongly about. I feel that it's so incredibly important to let others know when you appreciate them, because nobody likes to be underappreciated, and nobody likes the person who seems ungrateful. My mom says that even as a baby I would look so grateful and happy when she fed me or changed my diaper. When my great Aunt died when I was 17, she had no children of her own, so my dad was the one who had to take care of her estate and go through her belongings. When he was going through her finances, he found a pattern. She kept all the thank you notes that she ever got, and he found that I was the only one of his kids she still sent a birthday check to each year because my mom always made sure I sent a thank you card every year, but when my older siblings moved out on their own and stopped sending thank you notes, she stopped sending them checks the very next year after they missed a note. She even sent me a couple of her custom paintings for my 16th birthday, even though I barely knew her and had only met her a couple times. It just goes to show that when you thank people for the things they do for you, it makes them feel good and makes them want to do more nice things for you in the future.