Thanksgiving - what I'm thankful for

So, today is Thanksgiving, and I (like a few of the other folks involved in The Youth of Today) happen to be American.

For those of you who don't know, Thanksgiving is a secular harvest festival celebrated (at different times of the autumn) in Canada and the United States. The origins of the celebration are not well understood, but the popular myth is that early pilgrim settlers had help from indigenous people in North America to successfully plant crops; Thanksgiving is said to be a dinner they held together to celebrate the harvest season and this joint success.

Thanksgiving is the time each year when North Americans express gratitude for the good things in their lives including their families, plentiful food, and good fortune.

This year, reflecting on what I should be thankful for, I considered how lucky I've been to be involved in such a groundbreaking project. The Youth of Today is a chance to celebrate all the young people I live and work alongside, who help make society better, build plans for the future, and surprise me each day with their innovative ideas and creativity. We usually hear so much in the media about young people as a "problem" to be "solved" but it seems to me to be time that we all took a moment to express some gratitude for their leadership, idealism and energy.

So, thank you to all the inspiring young people I've met over the last months: you make it worth coming to work each day.