Thanks

Last week I wrote my acknowledgement page for my upcoming middle-grade novel, The Night Diary. It’s an emotional experience, because I’m grateful to so many people for so many things. But I have to remember that this act is supposed to be book focused. I’m lucky enough to have been through the process a few times and the same thing always happens. Beyond thanking those closest to the project (and I won’t mention all those amazing people here, because I’ll save it for the book), I have an urge to thank everyone who has meant anything to me, ever. 

I want to thank all my friends and family. I want to thank my loving pet collie I had when I was a kid who always made me feel worthy. I want to thank my 4th grade teacher who taught us about playwriting and Arabic. I want to thank my first best friend I ever had because she showed me I could have a best friend. I want to thank my favorite babysitter who often took me and my sister after school to feed wheat thins to those horses nearby. I want to thank my “mean” high school English teacher who made me revise that essay five times until I actually learned something. I want to thank the nice lady at the bakery who gave me my first job. I want to thank the adults I knew growing up who were artists because I saw that one could be such a thing. I want to thank the boy who asked me to my first dance. I want to thank anyone who has ever invited me to a party.   

There’s more, many more, but for the book, I stick to those who directly impacted the project. That’s the thing, though. Whenever you achieve something important to you, all those special people in your life, starting from your very first memories to today, are part of the achievement. They are part of the building blocks which created whatever allowed you to believe that you could do something.

Then I thought, what a great writing prompt! What a great life prompt. So for anyone who’s interested, take some time today and write your acknowledgement page. You can write it for anything you consider an achievement. Maybe the achievement is simply that you are a person who is a lot more good than bad, and that you’ve survived everything you’ve been through so far, and that you’ve cared about people and they’ve cared about you. 

Maybe write it because you’re standing here this morning, ready to do it all over again, and there’s someone out there who you want to thank for that.