Before I even dig in (pun intended) on today’s story I want to introduce this new idea I had for this website. It will be a once a week story that will for now be called “The Catch” until I decide I like something else or someone pitches a better idea to me. My idea for this is to either spotlight what I might have going on in my own life or for most weeks I will spotlight a WV angler that might be having success or an interesting story to share. It will honestly probably a hodgepodge of things, but regardless I would like to get a story out every week. So anyway, we’ll get to my story for the week.

Turkey day has to be arguably be my favorite holiday of the year just for the simple fact it’s an excellent time to get the family together, rehash old memories, talk some smack about football all in the meanwhile of stuffing my face full of food. Growing up especially as a kid, I never thought much of Thanksgiving especially when there was Christmas right around the corner and all my 12 year old self could think about what was going to be beneath the Christmas tree. But over the past four or five years I have looked forward to Thanksgiving more than any holiday.

This time around on the Thanksgiving, I feel like I have way more to be thankful for than I ever thought of. Over the past year I would be lying if I didn’t say my life has took a total 180 spin from what it used to be. Moving away from home for a new job and adapting a new lifestyle has been interesting I guess you would call it. It is still weird to me that I found myself where am now in life compared to where I was just a year ago. It felt like yesterday I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do with my life in the future and now I have pretty good game plan of what the future is going to look like.

But regardless of what I have going on in life right now, I am really starting to realize what I now am thankful for that I use to take for granted. I have only been away from home for a month now, but I would be lying to say I don’t miss my friends and family. And as much as I use to say “I can’t wait to leave West Virginia,” is now oddly becoming “I can’t wait to go home.” Mainly to see my dogs, but we won’t tell my parents that.

All that being said I am so grateful for where I am in life now compared to where I was a year ago. I have a career now with the best bass fishing tournament organization in the world and I brand I grew up loving. I have the opportunities in front of me to excel here, help grow the Bassmaster brand and be apart of history created at B.A.S.S.. But I am also extremely grateful for my family supporting me in my new journey and I am very grateful to have them by my side through it all. I am also extremely grateful for the time I will get to spend with them this weekend as well as my dogs and of course my best friends.

We all kind of get stuck in this rut (I am also guilty) at Thanksgiving or any holiday of “I got to go here at a certain time to spend time with these people and be there at a certain time for these people,” and sometimes can overlook what we are thankful for. So my question to you is, ‘what are you thankful for?’

So, if you need me this weekend I will most likely be spending my time with family on Thursday and Friday and (hopefully) on Summersville Saturday catching a few dinky smallmouth with my best friend before heading back Sunday to Alabama until Christmas.