31 Days of Letters to the Unthanked

In October, I’ll be participating in one of the largest blog link-ups that exists, 31 Days hosted by The Nester. This year, in 31 Day’s 5th year, over 1,500 bloggers are participating! The challenge is to choose a topic and write about it for 31 days straight. All of the bloggers who participate link-up their series on The Nester’s site where you can click on various topics and read until your heart’s content.

Any time I thought about topics I’d be able to write about for 31 days, Letters to the Unthanked was one of only two that kept coming to mind. When I finally decided to participate, I had no doubt that would be the title of my series.

From a young age, my mom taught me the importance of writing thank you notes when I received gifts from friends and family. Thank you notes weren’t an option in our house, they were a requirement! As I’ve grown older, I’ve kept that tradition alive. Yes, there have been occasions when time has escaped me and I’ve neglected to send a thank you, but every time I forget, I feel like I missed a step.

It’s fairly easy to thank people for thingsThank you for the pajamas you gave me for my birthday! Thank you for the books you gave me for Christmas! Thank you for the beautiful necklace you gave me for Mother’s Day. These are the first lines of thank you notes I’ve spent a lifetime writing.

But it’s not as easy to be purposeful about thanking people for things they’ve done. I can’t thank you enough for being my mentor. Thanks for showing me what it really means to be a friend. Thank you for the time you made me laugh harder than I’d laughed for years. These are the first lines of thank you notes I’ve spent a lifetime writing in my heart.

Over the course of one day’s worth of nap times and bed times, I flipped through 37 years of photo albums, generated 58 unthanked individuals, and narrowed that further to 31. Think there’s room for a follow-up series, More Letters to the Unthanked? I believe so!

This month, I’ll write a blog post every day for a total of 31 Letters to the Unthanked. In each post, I’ll thank an individual or group of individuals for the significant and unique ways they contributed to my life. Some posts are heart-warming and inspiring, some will stir you emotionally, and a couple are just outright comedic!

All 31 posts will be published on my blog home page as usual, but this post will serve as my series landing page. Below are links to ALL 31 posts in the Letters to the Unthanked series. It’s simple…find a letter you’d like to read, click on it, and the letter will pop right up!

Day 1: Dear Cyndy: A Letter to My Second Mom

Day 2: Dear Tammy: A Letter to My Grandparents’ Dog

Day 3: Dear Jamie: A Letter to My Childhood Friend

Day 4: Dear Florence: A Letter to My Day Care Provider

Day 5: Dear Grandma: A Letter to the One Who Made Her Mark

Day 6: Dear Nativity Director: A Letter to the One Who Chose Me As Mary

Day 7: Dear Mr. Steblay: A Letter to My Tennis Coach

Day 8: Dear Sonja: A Letter to my Flute Teacher

Day 9: Dear Denise: A Letter to my College Roommate

Day 10: Dear Quinn & LeeAnn: A Letter to My Awesome College Friends

Day 11: Dear Delts & Delt Girls: A Letter to the Only Ones Who Knew Me As Party Girl

Day 12: Dear Jen & John: A Letter to My Wind Ensemble Friends

Day 13: Dear Tim: A Letter to the Pastor Who Chose Me

Day 14: Dear Jenny: A Letter to the One Who Spoke of God’s Voice

Day 15: Dear Dr. Gierut: A Letter to My Graduate School Professor

Day 16: Dear Brittany: A Letter to My Sweet Grad School Friend

Day 17: Dear Rachel: A Letter to My Former Colleague, Mentor and Friend

Day 18: Dear Selmer & Anita: A Letter to My Husband’s Grandparents

Day 19: Dear Patti: A Letter to My Baby Boy’s First Daycare Provider

Day 20: Dear Anonymous Disney Employee: A Letter to the One Who Made My Day Magical

Day 21: Dear Dr. Busch: A Letter to My Childrens’ Pediatrician

Day 22: Dear Children: A Letter to the Two Who Made Messes

Day 23: Dear Eli: A Letter to My Son’s Swim Instructor

Day 24: Dear Ladies: A Letter to the Ones Who Got Me Out of the House

Day 25: Dear Fairy Godmother: A Letter to the One Who Reminded Me Miracles Are Possible

Day 26: Dear Briana: A Letter to My Sister’s Friend

Day 27: Dear Stepsister: A Letter to the One Who Stepped Out of Character

Day 28: Dear Jennifer: A Letter to the One Who Made Beauty

Day 29: Dear Nikki: A Letter to the Online Friend I Met (in) Real Life 

Day 30: Dear Sarah: A Letter to the One Who Tends Little Spaces, Hidden Places

Day 31: Dear Colleen: A Letter to the One Who Cracked My Code

31 Lessons From #31Days

I placed the series graphic on the right sidebar of my blog ——–> so you can click it anytime, and it will bring you back here where all 31 letters are listed and linked.

You can follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/AmyBPederson where I’ll tweet links to all 31 posts using hashtag #31 days, or on my blogging Facebook page at facebook.com/AmyBPederson.

Thanks for visiting and happy reading!

Amy

  1. […] creating Facebook and Twitter covers for the blog, and last but not least, she’ll design my #31Days graphic for […]

  2. Barbara Matalamaki says:

    LOVED READING YOUR LETTER TO JAMIE…BROUGHT TEARS YET AGAIN…FUN TIMES.

  3. Karena Lenore Kreger says:

    What a fantastic series idea! I might have to steal this sometime to spur the habit of intentional thankfulness in me. (In fact, this would make an excellent link up some day once your series is done.) Question, did you let the people know you were writing about them? Did you send them letters or just post it here?

  4. Karrilee Aggett says:

    What a great idea! I can’t wait to see your posts!

  5. Lisa Zahn says:

    I love your topic, Amy! Found you via your Twitter follow and am happy to be here. I will follow along! I’m writing #31Days of Radical Self Care at my site http://lisazahn.com/31-days-of-radical-self-care-an-overview/.

  6. Haylee Schroeder says:

    Awesome! I look forward to it 🙂

  7. Monica Anderson Palmer says:

    super excited-can’t wait!

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