Slice of Life
How much of our day slides by as invisible? How lucky that we arrived here safely? Who are the people that got us here — the pilots on our planes from home to Durham and the C1 driver from East to West; the admissions officers that said “yes” and the people that made attending Duke possible; What a privilege that we choose our classes, our paths, and what comes next. Yet in the stress of midterms and the work ahead of us at Perkins, it is so easy to forget all that.
For that reason, over the past year, I’ve research gratitude across five continents, asking strangers what they are grateful for. Here we have stickies from my wanders around the world.
The center piece (created by Thomas Gigrich, Duke 2025) captures a picture I took on my first Thanksgiving away from family — it was strange morning knowing my parents, brother, and cousins were all gathering together over a big warm meal while I lived an ordinary day in Madrid. I rode the metro with tired eyes, attended my classes, picked up groceries… in Madrid it was just another Thursday.
Yet my friends still found time to gather over snacks and good company, gratitude and care. It reminded me that it doesn’t need to be a special occasion for us to practice gratitude and come together — it can just be another Thursday in Madrid, and that is more than enough reason.
Check @gratitudewanders for more sticky notes and stories like these. Let’s bring the invisible privileges we have to the surface of our days, together.
So, what are you grateful for?
Danica Bajaj
Duke University 2025
This exhibition was sponsored in part by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.
