My mom used to make me write thank you notes when I was young.
“Dear Sarah, Thank you for coming to my birthday party. It was really fun. And thank you very much for the Skip-It. I use it all the time. Sincerely, Alene”
Ugh. Drudgery.
What I didn’t realize when I was young was that my mom was grooming me to express appreciation and acknowledgement. Sure, as a kid, it’s all about saying a specific thank you for a gift you receive. But later in life, it becomes about acknowledging someone for something they’ve done that impacted your life – really the best kind of appreciation there is.
When I was a senior in high school, I wrote a thank you note to my math teacher, who had taught the same group of us for 3 of the 4 years. He was a great teacher (I still remember some very specific, and esoteric, math theorems) and an all-around wonderful human. We still get together once a year for coffee and occasionally he brings that thank you note with him to show me that he still has it.
So today, I feel deep appreciation that once upon a time, my mom cultivated a habit in me to send thank you notes. I still have ones sent to me by friends, co-workers, and family, and occasionally I take them out to bask in the appreciation contained in those words.
Here’s my challenge to you, dear readers: will you send a thank you note to someone today? A real one, on paper or a card, that you write by hand? Whether it’s something that happened recently, or someone who left an impression on you some time ago – would you let them know? The joy in receiving those acknowledgements is immense and the cost to us to do it is so little.
If you do it, I hope you will share that with someone else and encourage them to do it as well!
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