Thanks, Arizona! by Miguel

Thanks, Arizona! by Miguel - July 2017 Scholarship Essay

I interview people around Arizona—from volunteers and volunteer managers to teachers—and publish their stories to challenge a common misperception of the relationship between gratitude and success. My TED talk would open with a short intro on how people typically view this relationship. Maturing within a top-ranking high school, I noted the intensely competitive feelings that often grew between students, classmates, and even friends. Some of it, the healthy sort, drove me to achieve and learn alongside a precious group of like-minded individuals. But the rest fractured relationships and left many isolated from the world. In short, my peers started to think that “success”, by their definition or society’s definition, should come before human feelings, like gratitude and happiness. Thanking people and giving back after success, rather than before, turns the most personal side of life into an afterthought. Witnessing this change, from ninth grade to the present, gave me compulsion to change it. Change how my peers were thinking. But this goal of changing hearts and minds would be too idealistic; I needed a practical strategy.
Thanks Arizona officially kicked off in mid-May, when I held my first interview. These interviews guided the strategy. I sought to share the stories of people who gave back before achieving their goals or successes. Notably, some of my interviewees needed to give back and experience gratitude as a cause of their success. These stories inspire people to live for gratitude before living for success. And some of these stories are truly incredible; my TED talk would lose meaning without sharing them. Freshly out of the medical business, one of my interviewees joined a non-denominational Christian church and signed up to volunteer after attending for only one weekend. At the suggestion of a friend, he took an interview to become a pastor. His favorite part of the job comes every Tuesday and Wednesday, when he meets parishioners at a house and talks about the Christian faith. The twist in his story came in his formal religious education. Well, more accurately, he has none. Not even a college degree. But you cannot argue that he is not a successful pastor; ten people greeted him during our interview. Starting as a grateful volunteer and arriving at a successful pastor, not the other way around. Why can too few people relate to this story?
Other stories are presented on the website, and I would enhance my summaries with pictures of the people in action. A deacon who doubles as the church’s facilities manager. A chemistry teacher who values personal interaction with her students. A librarian who served both an affluent suburb and the inner city, at the same time. A volunteer manager who served other mothers on Mother’s Day itself. An incoming college freshman who empowered poor people to help each other. Each picture tells a story of its own, beyond the quick summaries I can craft. These people encountered varying communities, including Arizona, and have wildly different stories. But the common thread should be clear: they have personally lived with gratitude, whether they call it “gratitude” or not. And they would not, ever, drop their service or work if you asked them to, even for large incentives (like money). Furthermore, they are essential to their communities, yet often overlooked. Most of my interviewees agree that people infrequently express thanks for their work, even though none of them give back just to get thanked. It may be difficult to find out why this is the case.
Where to go from here? The talk should conclude with my future vision, plus a takeaway for the audience in the room and around the world. The interviews are still my favorite part of Thanks Arizona, and I will continue. But it should only get bigger from here, and I truly want to reach the point where I am overwhelmed by the number of interviews that I offer. In the end, I will keep to my ultimate mission: gratitude should come before success. The least I can do is to show that this is true. I cannot get everyone in the world to start living gratitude. I can, however, say this: Thank the people who make your life worth living. Even just a one-percent increase of thanking people or experiencing gratitude every day will cause exponential growth in months. And, when you’re ready, go beyond saying “thank you”. Give back to the community. Perhaps you will find your true calling, as so many have, beyond the work that you think will make you “successful” down the line.