There’s been a lot to be thankful for since I moved to Lincoln County last May.
In particular, I am thankful to be employed. I don’t mean this in the sense that I am grateful for the opportunity to earn enough cash to pay for my groceries and my apartment, I mean it in the sense that I am grateful to be busy, and to be of use.
Being 23 years old, there have been a handful of times in my life where I have felt truly useful. Without experience or training, most manual labor jobs feel something like looking over your dad’s shoulder while you hand him the proper tools to get some real work done.
During my time studying composition, rhetoric, literature and any other place-holders for stringing together a few cogent pages on whatever I was told to direct my efforts towards.
In the meantime, I bagged groceries at a Hannaford in York, Maine, over the summers, oftentimes getting quizzical looks from customers who deigned to ask what I and my parents had spent however many thousands of dollars a year on for my education.
I was concerned; would I be passing my dad the wrench for the rest of my life?
Luckily, upon my graduation, I just so happened to stumble upon a community newspaper in the heart of a county I had never visited and rarely heard about.
Since that time, the gratitude that I have received from those who have either read or been part of my articles has been overwhelming. I feel as though what I do, and what I dedicated four years of my life towards is useful and needed.
So this Thanksgiving, I would like to say that I am grateful to the people of Lincoln County who have made me feel like I’m finally working on the engine myself.
Though I still can’t change my oil for the life of me.
