I have a lot to be thankful for.

This post was inspired by a movie I saw over the weekend; Slumdog Millionaire, which follows the life of a young boy born and raised in the slums of India. All of us in the U.S. of A have a lot to be thankful for. We may lose sight of that due to inflated standards and continuous negative press in this country. Anyway, back to me...I wanted to officially kick off 2009 by listing some of the things I'm thankful for so lets get to it.

• A loving and supportive family. I haven't exactly followed the typical path of earning a college education and then pursuing a career. I'm not 100% sure if that was the "right" decision, but it was MY decision and my family supported me on it. They're even supportive of my passion for trading, even though the success rate is so low and the risk so high.
• My 2-yr old nephew. He's the most adorable kid ever, and enhances my life like nothing else.
• My friends. Some of my best memories are with them, and they've known me since freshmen year of high school when I was working my ass off just to afford basic transportation. By now I've gone through close to half a million worth of cars, but none of that matters. These are the people I feel most comfortable with since none of us has to pretend to be someone we're not. No matter where any of us ends up, I think (hope) the friendships will remain the same.
• My uncle. He's cool as hell!
  
• Health.
  
• Trading. P&L aside, I've met some great people through trading (Joe Baker, David Dube, Matt T)
• My career in Information Technology. The IT field has been good to me.
• My condo on Lake Shore Drive. The views are awesome from the 55th floor, and I have some great memories there. I rented it out earlier this year, but will probably take it back for myself this coming summer.
• I'm a car nut; always have been, so this may sound superficial but I am thankful for my cars. When I was 16 years old, I couldn't even think of owning a Porsche 911 Turbo. Back then my dream car used to be a Mitsubishi 3000 GT. Taking the 996TT out for a spin after a stressful day is therapeutic.

I'm sure I'll add to this list over time. But for now, my stop's here and I need to get off the train :-)