Christmas was never something we cared about. I'm not talking about the people from the Ark in general, even though we had a lot of cultures all mixed in together up. Octavia and I never had much growing up. It was just us and our mother, and she did what she could to keep us fed and clothed, and there wouldn't have been a lot left over for presents. But we had each other. That mattered more than anything else our mother could have given us. She gave us each other.
I read about what Christmas was like, years ago, and I've heard bits and pieces from people here. I know some people celebrate a religious figure's birth, and others just give each other gifts. No matter where you look, though, there's one aspect of it that different groups have in common: it's a time to spend with the people you love, whatever your definition of that is. It's a season of giving, of gratefulness, of generosity, of kindness, of togetherness. I admit, I've never been good at being grateful. In my life, there hasn't been much to be grateful for.
We don't have a lot here. I know that's hard for some of you, to be without the comforts of your old lives and without the people you care about. But one thing we do have is each other. Good or bad, we're all in this life together now. You were brought here against your will, or forced to accommodate someone from a world we don't understand -- either way, we ended up in the same place.
This kind of thing isn't my strong suit. Clarke's the brains of the two of us. But I know when I've been approaching something wrong, and when it needs to change. I'm tired of hardly understanding any of you. If there's anything we should celebrate at the end of this year and into the next, it's that despite all the odds stacked against us, we're still here. We've come from all different walks of life, and none of us would be the same without each other. That's what I'm grateful for this year. We still don't have much, but we have each other.
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