Every year, we take time to express our gratitude for all the blessings the year at hand brought us. We reflect on the challenges we overcame as individuals & as a team. This year has been a difficult one, but it’s shown us just how much we have to be thankful for.
Brad Griffith
What a year! I’m particularly thankful this season for my support system including my family, community (Dublin throughout childhood, Ohio State, and now New Albany), co-workers, and entrepreneur peers. They have given me so many opportunities that have made living a happy, fulfilling life relatively easy. While it would be easy to stop there, this year has reminded me that not everyone has the same support system I have, and many suffer from institutional bias that has limited their opportunities. I’m thankful for my access to literature and for our civic leaders who have taught me so much about diversity, equity, and inclusion. I look forward to using my privilege to improve equity in the coming years, and I’m so thankful for my amazing team helping to make that happen. Here’s to lifelong learning. May we come together in this season to safely brave the pandemic and to heal our world’s pain.
Paul Tela
As always, I’m thankful for the support that I receive from my family and friends. I have so much gratitude for my wife Katie and her boundless belief in me. It has been a year full of learning opportunities and growth, and I am incredibly fortunate to have these people in my life. Of course, I’m blessed to be working for a great company and with wonderful people! I’m excited to see what this next year brings.
Taylor Cochran
This year I’m especially grateful for my family. It’s been a challenging year marked with loss and quiet struggles. I’ve never been more thankful for the support system made up of family and friends that feel like family. I have a newfound appreciation for time alone to learn, reflect, and grow as a result of the happenings this year has brought. Despite the challenges many of us have faced this year, I’m hopeful we all hold close the lessons learned and gratitude gained from this historic year.
Lorraine Shill
2020 will certainly go down as a memorable year! It’s been a year to really examine one’s priorities and to be thankful for all that we have. In particular, I am thankful that my husband recovered from COVID without having to be hospitalized and has no lasting effects of the virus. This experience alone was shocking and scary, like a slap in the face, and really got us both thinking about life and what’s important. I am also thankful for the birth of our grandson, James–what a blessing he is to the entire family! I’m thankful for my job. I could not ask for a better overall working situation–from type of work, leadership, co-workers to the ability to work remotely, everything about it I enjoy and feel thankful for. I’m thankful for my health and the health of my family. Health is Wealth! We didn’t get to see much of each other this year, but staying healthy was the priority. God willing, we will have many years of togetherness once the pandemic is in our past.
Melanie Muscolo
2020 somehow simultaneously feels like it’s been the longest yet fastest year. It has been incredibly eye opening to me on what is really important and what matters in life. I am so thankful and grateful that my family, friends, and coworkers have remained healthy. I am thankful for my amazing boyfriend who has been the best quarantine partner that I could have asked for. We truly have had the best time given the circumstances. I also feel beyond lucky to be employed by a company that cares so much about their employees and puts us first. Our management did everything in their power to keep us safe, healthy, informed, and employed. I also have so much gratitude for my amazing and caring coworkers who feel like a second family to me.
Tosha Studmire
As a creative and right-brained dominant human, I typically draw my inspiration and zeal for life from serendipity and being on the go. However, with stay at home orders and social distancing, I’ve had to draw inspiration from what’s right under my nose.
Here are some of the undiscovered, right in front of me, aha moments I am full of gratitude for during this season of life:
- undiscovered hiking trails with glistening lakes, brooks, and creeks
- the joy and peace that comes from listening to understand
- friends who celebrate, carry, and walk with you through sunshine and rain
- family bonds that grow deeper and stronger regardless of distance
- group chats + TikTok + plenty of gifs
- being gainfully employed and being able to wait out a pandemic without fear or worry
- being in a position to advocate for marginalized groups
- my lil baby frenchie, Biggie
Here’s to things will be ok, this too shall pass, and tending to our inner selves.
Milica Mijatovic
2020 has been a weird year, but it’s definitely been one of the best years of my life. I taught my first Poetry writing class at Boston University in person & then unexpectedly transitioned to teaching online–it was quite an experience! I graduated with my MFA from Boston University, my dream grad school. One of my favorite literary journals published a few of my poems. I continued my work with Buckeye at full capacity. And I spent so much quality time with my family. And, most significantly, I fell in love. I am thankful beyond measure for all of the blessings God has sent my way this year and every other year of my life, the most important being the health of my loved ones. I wake up every day feeling deep gratitude for everything & everyone around me. This year, more so than other years, I’ve learned how to champion the good and navigate the not-so-good as it comes catapulting my way.
Tony Todoroff
It’s been quite a year, so looking for things to be grateful for should seem difficult. Quite the contrary! This shut-in year has helped to amplify the things in my life that I’m deeply grateful for. I’m grateful for my health because life becomes a different beast entirely when my health isn’t in a good place. I’m grateful for my wife who helps lift me up when life has me down. She’s just absolutely incredible. I’m also grateful for my four legged babies because they bring me joy even in moments where joy seems impossible. To put it in the most simple terms possible, I am grateful for love.
Kelsie Ryon
This year, we are especially grateful for our little one and the hardship that having him gave us on our journey to becoming a family. We are blessed to have a happy, healthy baby who is surrounded by a happy, healthy family! Since joining the team at Buckeye Interactive, I was met with the support and caring team members who enabled me to do amazing work, slow down and enjoy becoming a mother, and help me transition to being a working mom after Oliver was born!
Nathan Minns
This year, I’m thankful for the opportunity to get my first job at an AMAZING company that cares about my professional and personal development–Buckeye Interactive! Next to that, I’ve gotten to spend a ton of time with my incredible girlfriend. I’ve learned to speak Spanish somewhat fluently. And I’ve gotten the chance to slow down and see what I truly care about.
Scott Brady
This year, I’m very thankful for my friends and family (including my church family). This has obviously been a weird year where we can’t see each other as often as we’d like. But my friends and family have found ways to stay connected, and for that I’m thankful. I’m also thankful for my health and the health of those I know. We’ve been very blessed, and I don’t want to take that for granted.
Brandon Caylor
This year, I’m not only extremely thankful for my job, my family, and my friends, but also the fact that I’m able to continue pursuing my personal hobbies through this pandemic, specifically HEMA. It’s always a great stress reliever and workout, and it really is a large part of my life. I’m also really thankful for my cats (as always); they always keep me company, and they’re basically my children.
Sarah Spriggs
In this past year, I have been especially thankful to be working at a company that cares so much about their employees. While COVID caused so many people around the country to become unemployed, Buckeye Interactive did everything they could to ensure we would be taken care of. I am also very thankful to have good health paired with a boyfriend and pup that have always been there throughout this tumultuous year.
Matthew Gardner
This difficult year has made me thankful for my family and friends most of all. Despite Covid and all the turmoil, we still find ways to keep in touch and encourage each other while still being safe.
Danny Nakitare
This year, I am thankful for the resilience of my family and community during this challenging year. I have been pleasantly surprised by the empathy and thoughtfulness displayed by the people I always thought of as exemplifying the rugged individualism of the Southwestern US. I am incredibly thankful for everyone who went out of their way to ensure that the kids in my city had ways of staying in touch, active, and educated.
Pearson Spychalski
This year, I have so much gratitude for the health of my friends and family during these troubling times. I am thankful to be surrounded by individuals who have my best interests in their heart. These people continue to drive me to be the best person possible. I am lucky to be where I am today, and I hope to continue making my loved ones proud.
Stacey Stathulis
I’m especially thankful for the health of my family and loved ones in a year when staying in good health is a daily uncertainty. The pandemic has focused my heart and head on that which is most important and stripped away the extraneous. The time I’ve spent with my wife, daughter, and son has been invaluable–even as I miss seeing my extended family. Our ‘circle’ has included just a few friends, but this year has shown just how treasured and loved those friends are. And I am especially grateful that I get to do work that matters to people during this time, whether that is work I am paid to do or volunteering. My objective in this world is to do as much good as I can while I’m here–and I have so much gratitude for that clarity and understanding of purpose.
