Well it's that time of year again ladies and gentleman, another beautiful day of eating far too much and watching football is upon us! That's right it's Thanksgiving day and there is much to be thankful for. Whether you plan to spend your day with family or friends or just by yourself laying out your battle plan for Black Friday try to make this thanksgiving a special one.

Personally I have a lot to be thankful for this year and if you'll permit a little personal rambling I'd like to express my thankfulness and hopefully inspire you to take a look at your life and think of all the things you have to be thankful for this year as well. This time last year I had very little direction in my life, granted I had a job and a loving family and friends to share my life with, so I would still have considered myself a pretty lucky person at that time. What was lacking was a goal or a dream of any kind, I was pretty much just floating along waiting for life to happen to me.

Around the New Year I resolved to change a number of things in my life that I was unhappy with and I made the decision for the first time to be proactive in affecting change in my life. My boss at the small Nissan dealership where I worked was well known in the industry for developing some very effective social media and SEO strategies for our dealership and he was getting ready to start his own company offering the same services and strategies that he had used to put our dealership on the map. I very much wanted to get in on the ground floor of this budding start up business but I had no real marketable skills for a company like that. I had dropped out of photography school to take a full time job at this Nissan dealership, and I had no desire to go back to school.

So let's see, what does every internet start up need that I could actually do? Well I landed on web developer/programmer, and began my journey to learn to code. To make a long story short I had ruled out the possibility of going back to school, so over the next few months I committed to teaching myself how to program websites, everything from basic HTML and CSS to PHP and Java Script. Also during those months, with my new found drive and direction in life I committed to being a healthier person started going to the gym and managed to loose a significant amount of weight.

I want to make sure that I stress that I can't even begin to take all of the credit for this. I couldn't have done any of it with out the support of my good friend and coworker Zach and my Boss and mentor Tim. This last year has been quite a ride, and I am extremely thankful for the two of you for your continued support, and for affording me the opportunities I have today. At this point Zach, Tim, and I form the core of an amazing business called Wikimotive, along with the rest of our talented staff. I get a lot more personal fulfillment out of my work and my life now than I ever have, and as we continue to grow our company I'm sure that feeling will only increase. I am by no means done with my self improvement, in fact I have quite a ways to go yet, but this Thanksgiving I can truly say that I am thankful for something in my life.

Thanks for bearing with me through that, hopefully I've inspired you, at the very least, to look at your life and the things you have to be thankful for. On behalf of Wikimotive I wish everyone safe travels, great food, great company, and a happy Thanksgiving!