You hear it over and over sometimes to not take life for granted. My goal on this blog post is not to preach to you about not to take life for GRANTED, I just want you to try gain my insight more specifically on why sometimes we do this without even noticing it. I am going to focus on three main points, on how/why we do this, so here I go.
To be more specific, when I say taking life for granted does not mean in any shape or form that you are a bad person. I will be the first to admit, that at times I do it without even noticing it. By understanding or actions and tendencies I believe we can help improve our actions and appreciation for everything we do have in our life.
What made me start thinking about wanting to write this began today while I was at work. During the summer I am doing an internship as well as working as a cashier. Today I was at work as a cashier, and I started to get very tried, well my feet did. I looked at the clock and saw that I still had TWO HOURS left, how in the world was I going to make it. It hit me then, was I complaining mentally, or was I not having a full appreciation for even having a job. I don't know the response to that question, but it inspired me to write this blog today, so here it truly begins!
Reason Number ONE: I feel like we are SPOON FED. (With my three reasons I am going to give an example that I have witnessed in my life, to make this more real. Define spoon fed: Being given many more opportunites than others, being privelaged to go to places, being given money to do whatever you want etc. Before I go on any further, anything I say following this is not complain about my life or anyone elses, just an insight into how we might all be taking life for GRANTED sometimes. My example: Currently in my life, I will just go out and say this, the car that I drive, I did not purchase myself. I pay for everything else pertaining to my car but I never payed for it. Now there are other things that I have had bought for me, but I wanted to give an example. This past semester in college, I had a Resident Assistant banquet where I was given an award. I didn't want the spot light to be on ME, I wanted to give some one else credit where credit was DUE. Instead of just standing up to get an applause, I went to the front of the room, asked for the microphone, and have myself a couple seconds to talk because I began getting emotinal. I told everyone how rough this semester has been for me, and that I wanted to thank someone today who has been an inspiration to me. This girl, wait no WOMAN on my staff is 22 years old and just recently had the money to purchase her own care, and her own apartment. She would walk to work in the winter and never even ask for a ride. I never realized she did this until I put two and two together. I told everyone how she was an inspiration to me. She got upset, and shed some tears, but HAPPY tears. Thank you SB, I wish you the best of luck on your journey after college. So, ask yourself, what could you have done to help someone else out?? THINK ABOUT IT, I took my life for granted at times and could of helped her out. Could you have done something else for a friend?
Reason Number TWO: We don't take other people into CONSIDERATION. When was the last time you went out of your way to help someone? When was the last time you turned your head away from a problem because you blamed it on someone else. This past semester, I met a resident who always seemed to give me attitude all the time. I feel like I am a nice person, and can take grief from people, but this girl just was always giving me attitude. I brushed it to the side, and figured she was just an angry person. MAN WAS I WRONG! One late night around 2 a.m. I sat in front of her door and we had a heart to heart. I opened up to her about some troubling things in my life, as well as she did. She told me stories, mainly one that shocked me. A story about how she had been physically been punished in the past by close people in her life that have made her she was.(Don't want to go into specifics). Either way, since then we may not have been close friends, but we both had a mutual understanding of each other. It was nice being able to see her smile more, the fact is, sometimes we just want to be HEARD. Not guided, but HEARD. Some people have lost that I believe, a friend is not always about telling them what is right an wrong, but rather just listening to what they have to say. I ask you, have you ever ignored someone? Ever not cared at all about someones thoughts or opinion. Ever given up on someone because of how they treated you once? Yes, sometimes we need to take others into consideation. Instead, of ignoring our problems, why not take a deeper look into them.
Reason Number THREE: We don't take enough time to look around, and see how blessed we truly are. For example: I have had the privelage to go to college, have amazing expeirnces, meet some of the coolest people. I have had the chance to have a job while people are still out there looking for one. I had the privelage of having a family that supports me...etc etc. There are days where I am home for the summer where I am alone all day, with nothing to do. It takes a toll, because it feels as if I don't have many friends, when I thought I really did. Being home for the summer is sweet, but hard because I am not around my friends everyday like when I am at college. Makes you think, when college is over and done with, who will REALLY still try to keep in contact no matter how far or near they are. It's kind of a real thing I'm beginning to think about, I am a senior coming up(ewwww, senior...ewww haha) MY POINT: Instead of thinking negatively, think of what I do have around me, I can go for a run, I have a cell phone to text my friends, I have a car, I have something that we all have in common, the one thing we all forget from time to time..we all have LIFE.
So remember the past three points I have made:I feel like we are SPOON FED. We don't take other people into CONSIDERATION. We don't take enough time to look around, and see how blessed we truly are. Can you relate to any of my examples, I am sure you could if you thought about it. As I said before, I am not writing this blog to say anyone is a bad person, heck I am just saying we all have taken life for granted sometimes, even if we havent realized it. Today I saw a 80 year old couple leave the store holding hands, 80 year olds still in LOVE, now thats what I call happiness.
So tonight or tomorrw if you have taken the chance, I hope in the back of your brain I could have posisbly planted a seed to remember this LIFE you live, and how much we could appreciate what we do have. Seriously, people need help out there, probably your friends you just dont realize it. No one is perfect, I am far from it, believe me. I hate losing people, I hate losing friends that have been close to me, but sometimes you can't control other peoples emotions and thoughts. I hate seeing people struggle, and not being able to help. I hate not being able to dunk a ball, If I could grow 6 inches I would right now. I hate the thought..the thought that I could do MORE. Someone out there tonight is wishing for a miracle, a dream to come true, a wish for someone to come into their life and rescue them, or possibly someone just wants to be heard. When it is all said and done, how you live your life is up to YOU.
Take a moment out of your day to say hi to a friend and see how their doing. Take a second to look around you, and see how blessed you are. Take a moment to sit down and realize how special you are. Take a moment and realize, in this life you live, the possibilites are endless. If you can read this and say you don't or never have taken life for granted, well then I can't change someones perceptions, but I can always give my ideas on ways you can help out others. No one is going to see eye to eye in this world, failures become success because in order to understand what it feels like to be successful, you need to understand what being down on the ground once felt like.
WHY DO WE TAKE LIFE FOR GRANTED...just ask yourself...the answer will be there. If you have read this far into this blog I would love to hear your response, or comment about your reaction to this, what ever you would life. It is currently 10:10 p.m. on a Sunday night, tomorrow starts a whole new week. The sun will rise, and so will you.
I want to thank you all for being either family to me , or even friend no matter how close or far. You all have had impact in my life and many others lives.
So I will leave you with this, don't ask yourself what you WANT, but what could you do for others???
Good night all
