Read time: 4 min.

The older I get, the more I find myself grateful for the small things instead of Thanksgiving’s pageantry and fuss. I’m thankful for the overlooked- the parts of the world that sit just off the shoulder of the road, waiting for someone with a curious streak to pull over and take a picture.

Maybe that shouldn’t surprise me. I’ve spent years hunting down the places most people pass without noticing: a schoolhouse lost in the trees, a forgotten flowing well hidden behind a guardrail, or a pioneer cemetery clinging to a slope next to the creek. Quiet corners like that have become the places that steady me! This year, when I take stock of where I am and what I’ve made it through, I keep coming back to them.

Here in 2025, I’m thankful for the way the old Oak Grove schoolhouse shadows my trips to Fort Wayne. I’m also grateful for the Blackford County Courthouse tower, which used to greet me at the end of college drives like a lighthouse pulling me home. I’m thankful for Cornbread Road -still one of the strangest and most unique names I’ve ever come across- and for the way a road sign can become a landmark on my own personal map.

I’m thankful for the artesian wells that never stop flowing, even in the dead of winter. I love the Long Line towers scattered across the state, silent now but still reaching upward, connected to a story that spans decades.

I’m thankful for the way ruins make me feel less ruined myself. When depression hits hard and the world narrows into something colorless and heavy, crumbling bricks and sagging beams remind me that survival doesn’t have to be pretty. Persistence counts for something. So does showing up. So does simply being here.

I’m thankful for the people who have wandered with me, too. I’m grateful for my mom, who has become more of a friend than I ever expected, whether we’re chasing a flowing well in Hancock County or staring up at a century-old cupola in Bloomfield. I’m glad to have some friends I’ve made through this blog- many of whom I’ve never met in person, but whose comments or messages have meant more than they know. I’m thankful for the ones who pointed me in new directions, handed me a story I never would have found, or just listened when I needed to spill something heavier than history.

I’m also thankful for you! I’m glad you’ve been reading, grateful that you’ve shown up, and happy that you cared about the same strange corners of the world that fascinate me. We’ve built a little community here, tucked away on a small stretch of the internet, not entirely unlike those schoolhouses and cemeteries hidden away on the backroads. This Thanksgiving, I’m grateful for every piece hidden in plain sight that has shaped me, steadied me, or surprised me. Maybe you have done the same. Thanks for spending another year wandering with me. Here’s to the road ahead, and all the overlooked places waiting for us just around the bend.