Gratitude is an emotion that expresses appreciation for what we have. Coomera Anglican College’s ‘30 Days of Gratitude’ project has seen the college community come together throughout August to share the things they are most grateful for in life.

We asked one of our Year 12 students, Isabel Croker, to put down her thoughts about gratitude, a bit about the Student Representative Council’s project and why spreading gratitude and being thankful is the first step to happiness. 

How often do we say thank you and express our gratitude for the positive things in our lives which we have not asked for or actively worked towards? Gratitude is an inherent quality that resides within each human being, an emotion which arises spontaneously within us and is also a choice we make – being grateful or ungrateful. 

Expressing gratitude is one of the best ways to increase your own levels of happiness and those around you, whether it is through a simple thank you, an act of kindness or even writing a gratitude letter to someone who has positively affected your life.

The Student Representative Council at Coomera Anglican College took the concept of expressing gratitude and made it our mission to spread happiness through gratitude around our College campus. We have kick started our project with ‘30 Days of Gratitude’ which involves students, teachers and parents posting images of things they are grateful for on CAC’s social media platforms. Nature, pets, family, friends and our college community have featured strongly as common things many of us are grateful for. The response to our unique project has being overwhelming; there is nothing better to brighten up your newsfeed than an image of an adorable animal or smiling group of students. 

On our final day of our ‘30 Days of Gratitude’, CAC will launch the much-awaited Gratitude Day! Students will be involved in a range of activities focussed on expressing gratitude, specifically writing gratitude letters. The simple act of putting pen to paper and expressing thankfulness and appreciation has proven to have countless benefits including improved self-esteem, physical health and mental strength, a decrease in aggression and a better sleep. Spending just a few minutes writing grateful sentiments can have a profound impact on our lives, which is why the SRC believed this would allow students to cultivate relationships and foster new ones. 

‘Gratitude Day’ and the SRC’s focus on spreading gratefulness throughout the College has even reached the Early Learning Centre. Our youngest students have been hard at work drawing images, taking photos on the College iPads and creating collages of what they are grateful for, whether it is mummy and daddy or their favourite teacher. In the primary school, students are creating a beautiful Gratitude Board, where they are pinning images of things they are expressing gratitude for, on display for everyone. This College wide focus on thankfulness is an exciting initiative, allowing all students to focus on those special to them and cultivating an attitude of gratitude in our community.

You can keep updated on our Gratitude Day initiative through the Coomera Anglican College social media channels and perhaps even practice writing a gratitude letter yourself, thanking those special people in your life.

 
- Written by Isabel Croker, Year 12 Student, 2017