Happy Holidays

So I survived my first Thanksgiving alone. For the first time in my life, I couldn't go home for the holidays and it made me realize just how homesick I've been. I remember in college there would be times when I didn't want to go home because my family can be a pain in the ass sometimes. But I'd always go back and I had to admit, it was better than staying in an empty campus. I realized a few months prior that the odds of me going home for the holidays were slim and I would get depressed every time I thought about spending Thanksgiving alone. I asked to work. I figured, it's better to work, make a little money, be around people, and be tired enough by the end of the day that I wouldn't care that my Thanksgiving was not enjoyable.
But when the date actually came around, I was ok. I got to work my beloved show six days in a row that week and watched it at least once a day.
Now for Christmas, I convinced my family to come and visit me. They are on their way over here as I write this. My mom was saying she just wasn't feeling the Christmas spirit this year; it wasn't the same without me at home, there's not a heck of a lot of money and so on. For the first time in my life, I'm really starting to appreciate my family. I've always known how much my mom has sacrificed and worked hard to support me and give me the best opportunity so that I can accomplish my dreams, but now I really feel the depth of that sacrifice. I told her this the other day but she said "No, it's you. All I could ever do is teach you and hope that you would take something away from it." This Christmas, I have a lot to be thankful for: I graduated from college, got a job in my field, moved out of state, and I can pay all my bills on time. In general, I'm making it, I'm successful. A year ago, costume design was a glimmer in my eye, I was designing my second show, but I had only a vague idea as to what I had to do to get an actual paying job. Hell, even six months ago I was struggling to find a job. I was worried that I wouldn't find anything, so I kept applying, trying to escape that fear and almost certain failure. Now look at me! My mom is right, I have a lot to be PROUD of. Not merely thankful, but proud because I worked hard to get here. It didn't drop out of the sky and into my lap, I made it happen. If that makes me arrogant, fine, so be it. But it's earned. Here's a quote that I should post on my locker at work.

All your life, you have heard yourself denounced; not for your faults, but for your greatest virtues. You have been hated, not for your mistakes, but for your achievements. You have been scorned for all those qualities of character which are your highest pride. You have been called selfish for the courage of acting on your own judgment and bearing sole responsibility for your own life. You have been called arrogant for your independent mind. You have been called cruel for your unyielding integrity. You have been called anti-social for the vision that made you venture upon undiscovered roads. You have been called ruthless for the strength and self-discipline of your drive to your purpose. You have been called greedy for the magnificence of your power to create wealth. You, who've expended an inconceivable flow of energy, have been called a parasite. You, who've created abundance where there had been nothing but wastelands and helpless, starving men before you, have been called a robber. You, who've kept them all alive, have been called an exploiter. You, the purest and most moral man among them, have been sneered at as a 'vulgar materialist.' Have you stopped to ask them: by what right? - by what code? - by what standard?
 -- Ayn Rand "Atlas Shrugged"