As another COVID-tinged Thanksgiving approaches, AACC students said they’re grateful for their health and their loved ones.

“I am really grateful that my parents are healthy,” Matthew Coughlin, a second-year environmental science student, said. “One of them has a chronic respiratory illness [so] I’m thankful they are doing well and never [caught] COVID-19.”

According to the Anne Arundel County Health Department, 54,813 people in the county have contracted COVID-19 so far this year and 771 have died.

Coughlin said living with a large family has made him grateful for his life because even catching a common cold and fearing it is COVID-19 can be stressful.

Corey Poling-Tharp, a second-year pre-law student, said he is grateful for his family because a lot of people are losing their loved ones and cannot see their elderly family members during the pandemic.

“I’m very family oriented,” Luis Pena, a first-year business student, said. “I’m grateful [that] everyone [is] healthy.”

Fourth-year nursing student Irene Warari agreed.

She said she is grateful that God has given her a gift she can use to help others out.

“Remind yourself of the good things,” first-year transfer studies student Sydney Lawler said. “Keep yourself going and keep looking forward to [the] good things.”

First-year business student Kevin Curran said he’s grateful for his family helping him out and every moment he has with them because “in the blink of an eye you can lose everything.”

Second-year transfer studies student Nathan Garcia, a New York native, said he’s grateful to live in Anne Arundel County and for the resources at the college.

“Both of my sons went here, so I figured since I am retired now … let me take advantage of this really great resource, which is [AACC],” Garcia said