A Season of Gratitude: KSSU DJs Share What They’re Grateful For This Year

It’s easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of daily life—work deadlines, college assignments, family responsibilities, and even just the occasional rough day can make it hard to appreciate the positives. But practicing gratitude can genuinely transform our outlook and even improve our overall well-being. And no, you don’t have to go big or over the top; it’s often the small, everyday things that can make the biggest impact.

Here at KSSU, we asked our DJs to share what they are most grateful for this year, and their answers are unique as their playlists. 

So, dive in and read about what our KSSU DJs are grateful for. Who knows–it might even remind you of a few things you are thankful for, too!

DJ Babymaddii, Host of Sleepygirl Radio

I am grateful for the relationships I have made over the past year. The friends I have now feel so right and as though we will continue to grow together forever as we click so well and flow so smoothly. My little community has found me in a range of phases of my life but growing alongside them feels as though we are gracefully intertwining, despite diving into different niches and paths. As they all offer different perspectives and have personalities, they are also diversifying me and introducing me to knowledge I would not have known existed otherwise, no matter how small or common the info is. Which I think is truly so special. My friends have offered all they can in the rough patches of my existence and I truly feel as though I can never repay them for that however, I hope they know how forever grateful I am for them. 

DJ Fierce, Host of Oriental Vibes

As the holiday season approaches and Thanksgiving comes around the corner, there are a lot of things I am thankful for. The first thing everyone, including myself, should be thankful for is family. My family has supported me throughout my whole life. Many of them look up to the fact that I am a full-time college student who has received scholarships with the aim of becoming a doctor in the future. This leads me to the next thing I am thankful for: being a student at California State University, Sacramento. 

Being a student in this nice, good-looking university kind of makes me stand out from the rest of my college friends who attend a private college in the ghetto areas. I mean, Sacramento is a great area to be around, especially because there is a lot of great food places in the area. Sadly, in my case, I live in Manteca, which means I have to drive an hour three to four days a week to get to Sacramento. Not to mention, Tuesday rush hour is so bad. If you live far and leave campus at like 5:15 or 5:30 in the afternoon, you probably won’t get home until 8 pm at the most.

The other thing I am thankful for is being a part KSSU, a student-run radio station. Though this is my first semester with KSSU, it has made my fall semester really unique compared to all the other semesters. This is currently my third semester at Sacramento State, and being a part of KSSU, I have increased my popularity on my socials. I have been stuck at 1,930 followers since 2018 or 2019. This year broke the constant line! I am currently closing in on 2,000 followers, and if that happens, I will hold a special episode celebration on my show, Oriental Vibes. If you’re reading this blog, please follow me at @hee.xx.eung and @dj.fierce on Instagram.

The next thing I am thankful for is the progress of my education. Back in 2015, I switched schools due to bullying. I would like to thank those fellow students back in 7th grade who had helped me rise from the depths of the difficult time. They made me feel like I was welcome to their school and within the first week of school, I was a popular guy. Having friends at school will make your experience in education more fun and also attractive if you do not like education. It will make you chase education and perhaps applying for admission to the prestigious schools just like Sacramento State. 

I went from being a student with a 2.66 GPA in 6th grade to being a student with a 3.84 GPA. Currently, I have a 4.00 institutional GPA at Sacramento State. I am still competing for those A’s in almost every class I take. I only had one B, one C, and sadly a D in a few of my college classes. I received a B in physiology, C in microbiology, and  a D in a community college CHEM 3A class. Luckily, when I took CHEM 6A at Sacramento State, my grade become an A+ really quick and I had over 100 on every exam. To be honest, I was hoping for a 94 on the last exam but my mind said “Nope. I need over 100 to become the next SI Leader of CHEM 6A.” This leads to the last thing I want to say I am grateful for.

I am grateful for being the SI Leader of CHEM 6A with the Peer and Academic Resource Center in the library. Every week, I strive to help students who have difficulties with the concepts in CHEM 6A. Students who attend have found the activities I include helpful. Students were thankful that I always help them through these concepts because I do not just strictly have them fill out a worksheet, but I also have them talk with them. Sometimes we will have fun by making the concept humorous and I also bring some treats for attendees.

I am thankful for being part of the PARC and KSSU families. It has been so fun being part of these families because we always have fun activities going on. For KSSU, I am able to showcase my personality of K-pop and other songs that people may have not heard about before. PARC is thankful that I am a part of KSSU because they have been requesting for me to bring the DJ controller to the upcoming potluck. HAHAHA! Looks like I connected a bridge between PARC and KSSU, and maybe the Political Science Department as well. My Political Science professors are becoming interested in listening to KSSU.

If it wasn’t for my exposure to K-pop and K-dramas in 2021, I probably would not even be in KSSU today. My personality of K-pop has spread around campus and some people have enjoyed some of the beats I play every Friday morning. Even though it is early in the morning to dance, I always come into the studio with the highest energy possible thanks to my coffee from Peet’s Coffee. I also want to thank K-pop and K-dramas for making me the person I am today. These two also turned my fashion choices from being very ugly to being the top-tier of the campus sometimes.

Snog, Host of The Collective Energy

The season of gratitude is upon us. Thanksgiving is the day we all set aside to express how thankful we are for all the good stuff in our lives. While I can appreciate the idea, it seems odd to me that gratitude gets only one day out of the year. From my perspective, gratitude should be a daily practice, and not for just the good things.

Life is a gift, given to me each day, and I’m thankful for that. I live in a home I own, and I’m thankful for that. I have an amazing wife, a supportive family, and two happy, handsome, and healthy sons – I’m so incredibly thankful for that. There’s a comma in my bank account balance, and I’m thankful for that.

On the flip side, my ex-girlfriend of 17 years dumped me 10 years ago, and at the time, I was devastated. It seemed like I would never recover from it. However, had that not happened, I’d never have met my wife, and my sons wouldn’t exist. So, I am grateful for that heartbreak now. I use that experience to remind myself that everything is a part of life’s journey. I can’t only be thankful for the good–I must embrace and be grateful for the not so good things in my life too.

Not only did that personal tragedy lead me to my family, but I also found a whole new me in the process. The old me would have never gone back to school at 43, earned a GED, completed an associates degree, and started working toward a BFA. By enduring and growing from the pain of that experience, I overcame my self-imposed limitations and exceed every expectation I had for myself.

If you’re experiencing something that feels like the end of your world, just know that if you walk through that fire, everything you ever dreamed of is waiting for you on the other side. Learn to appreciate the fire and the opportunity to grow. Love your life, and be thankful to be drawing in breath. The odds of you existing are 1 in 400 trillion. So many people who could exist, never will. You’re a walking miracle–be thankful for that every single day.

DJ Harrito, Host of Kingdom Beats

I’m going with a goofy answer this year and saying I’m grateful for my recent favorite video game, I☆CHU: Chibi Edition! 

This game was recently released on the Nintendo Switch, and I kid you not, I bought it on the release day completely by accident! I had saved up my store credit at GameStop, and I decided to buy a game using that credit after a long time. The funniest part to me was that I was choosing between two games: I☆CHU or Pokémon Scarlet. 

I was going to buy Scarlet, however the cover of the game convinced me to choose the other game, I☆CHU. It looked like some sort of Hatsune Miku rip off which made me excited as I love poorly translated games as it makes the gameplay even more fun to voice act with friends or alone on stream. 

I purchased it for a surprisingly low total of $6 with tax, compared to the hefty $40 I would have paid fully. After 2 weeks I finally decided to play it for fun as, at the time, the current Marvel x Fortnite season was starting to fill me with boredom. 

After spending a bit of time running through the tutorial, I played for a bit on the song selection and oh boy was it… good? Like, I thought it was going to be bad but why does the music go so hard?! 

Apparently, it was a mobile game a few years back, but ever since it shutdown, they haven’t done much with it here in the United States. Japan, however, had a longer lifespan up until the closure of it, only to make way for another game that was based on the first app. Only this time around being more of a “visual novel” inspired rather than having a huge emphasis on the music aspect from what I understand. That second game didn’t last long, so the series stood silent until the port over to the Nintendo Switch. 

Like I said before, all that happened in Japan. But here in the West, we didn’t receive much for many years until this year, 2024 when I☆CHU: Chibi Edition rolled out this October. The vocals of some songs are sometimes off but that’s what makes it fun for me. Others tracks go weirdly hard, like who was in the studio making this?! 

The voice cast surprised me even more as it included people such as KENN who has done other voice acting roles such as Fogato from Fire Emblem Engage and Toshiyuki Toyonaga, who has also done work in the Fire Emblem series as Claude from Three Houses. Who knew both of them had such AMAZING singing voices?! F∞F definitely has to be my favorite band, as Akira Mitsurugi is indeex my bias haha! 

I’m very grateful for purchasing this game for a surprisingly low amount of money. Although it is pretty low quality as it seems oddly rushed and poorly translated (as seen in some of my streams–@DJharrito on Twitch), it is DEFINITELY worth playing. I’m still in the first part of what seems to be a three-part visual novel tale. Like I said, I’m so grateful to have bought a game I love for it’s music and its fun translation errors! 

That said, I can see why this game is also equally disliked. The gameplay is pretty repetitive and sometimes the beat syncs are off. I struggled for a good hour figuring out my beat sync. But finally I managed to get it up right. It did take a lot of time though. The price is also questionable–$40 sounds like a lot but who knows. 

If you’d like to hear some music from the I☆CHU series or other anime toons, feel free to listen to my show, Kingdom Beats, airing Tuesdays from 2 to 3 PM!

DJ Issac, Host of Constant Headache 

The 20916 Hardcore scene is what I am grateful for. Being able to show up to skate shops, bookstores, people’s houses, etc. to see live music and some consensual violence is a privilege that will never be lost on me. A central tenet of this music-based community is doing it yourself, and I am grateful for those who put their necks on the line to provide a space for like-minded youth to come together and get some steam off in a positive way. 

Since moving to Sacramento from a small rural area, I have tried to soak in every experience I can, and I’ve done so knowing that many of these privileges are only temporary. Seeing spots like Wildwood and The Ramp have to cease operation has only emboldened my respect for those behind these projects. I have been able to make many friends, recognize familiar faces, and have a much larger sense of community in what is essentially a third space because of the people who take the risk of putting on these events.

Shoutout Pat & Chelsea, Isaias, Morgan, and countless others. RIP WILDWOOD AND RATCHET <3

DJ Mel, Host of Mystery Mashup Hour

This year I am grateful that I have made it 9 years with KSSU, but that is not only what I am grateful for. I have such a long list of things I am grateful for, but rather than listing a whole long list, I would rather just name a few things that I am grateful for.

I am most grateful for the two groups I am a part of here at Sac State which are Sacramento Chi Alpha and KSSU. I originally returned to Sac State to be part of KSSU again, but I also decided to check out another club, Chi Alpha, which I have really enjoyed these past two terms.

I am grateful that I have the opportunity not only return to KSSU as an alum, but I also really like the bigger space we have here in the union, as it was being renovated when I left in 2017. I am grateful for everything that has happened this past year.

DJ sVed, Host of The Passenger Seat

I am grateful for a lot of things, including family, friends, and life as a whole. Being so lucky as to be able to wake up in the morning, breathe fresh air, go to the gym, watch a movie, eat food, and all of the other enjoyable things in life that most people take for granted. 

Among those things, I am extra thankful for music. Like most people, I listen to music as much as I can and it has become intertwined with almost every part of my life. It has connected me with people, places, and memories that would otherwise have one less layer to them. Something about creating a unique soundtrack to your own life feels very special and I am not sure I would enjoy most things in life as much if I could not listen to music. 

It has been connected to good as well as bad times so that is how you know that it is something real and important to you. It has shown me new perspectives and opened my eyes to things I do not think I would have ever considered before. Everyone could use a little more culture in their life and music is my favorite way to apply that statement in mine. 

Going to concerts to experience what I hear in my headphones live has been something I did not think I would like so much until I started going to them, and things like concerts have brought just as much enjoyment as just listening by myself. So music is also a gateway to many other things in life that can bring joy if you let them. 

Just like music, there are an unlimited amount of average and easily accessible everyday things that almost anyone can do or take part in that are very easy to implement into a better life. It all starts with gratitude and recognizing that something is special when you allow it to be a part of your life and bring good things. It does not just happen magically by itself. So be grateful for the little things, be grateful in general, and go listen to some more music.

DJ Z, Host of From My Playlist To Yours

There are many reasons to be grateful. If one were to ask me, “what are you most grateful for”, first thing I would say are for my parents. 

I am grateful for my parents because they have done so much for me. Every parent sacrifices their joys and dreams for their child just so that they can provide a better world for them. My parents also did the same. 

From the moment I was born, their life changed completely. Due to negligence at childcare, my mom sacrificed her dreams just to provide the best upbringing for her daughter by becoming a stay at home mom, while my dad was the sole provider for the house working tirelessly–even in harsh weather conditions–so that our family could thrive. 

There were times where financial situations were tough, but my parents always made sure I had everything that I always wanted, even if it meant for my parents to sacrifice their wants. Because of them, I can say with certainty that there was never a time in my life where I felt as if my needs were not being met. 

These words that I am writing cannot even begin to describe the sacrifices my parents have made just for me. The sacrifices they made are anmol (priceless), which is something that I can never repay them back for even if I tried. 

We, as children, often take for granted the countless ways our parents shaped our lives. We complain, argue, or distance ourselves from our parents, as we are blind to the dreams and wants that they set aside in order to make us a full fledge human being. We are so absorbed in our struggles that we forget to look at their struggles. This is simply because we make ourselves so important that we forget to care about the ones that love us the most. 

If you are reading this, I urge you to take a moment to reflect. Please be grateful and kind to your parents no matter how they are and no matter the circumstance. Remember, there are two side of the story not just one. Take the time to understand their perspective, as their love is the foundation of everything we are today.