Looking at the state of the world, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and believe that there is nothing to be grateful for. After all, a lot of people are in a financial slump. Families could barely make ends meet. Homeless and unemployed individuals abound. What is there to be grateful for?
Well as it happens, there is a lot. Think about your life today – do you live in a home? Do you get to treat yourself to good food? Are you able to see your family and friends? You may not always realize it, but these are things to be grateful for, to cherish.
Throughout my time spent volunteering in HAPI events and performing my duties as a nursing student at public hospitals, I have met families who were constantly struggling to put food on the table, pay their bills, send their children to school, and buy necessary medicine. Yet regardless of the challenges they face, they remain appreciative of what they have as in their mind, every difficulty will be resolved eventually. Their circumstances make it easy for them to give up, but they refuse to do so.
One of the most significant barriers to gratitude is the world’s abundance of negativity.
I initially found it confusing to contemplate their point of view, but I’ve come to realize that the simplest way to sum up the lessons I’ve learned from serving them is to simply say, “Be grateful.” This is not to suggest that I am not already grateful for what I have, but I could have been more appreciative of what I already had. I became more aware of myself and my surroundings as a result of watching those families push through their struggles. When I compared my situation to theirs, it dawned on me that most of the things I had taken for granted are the same things they yearn for themselves.
With my HAPI chapter, doing our thing!
Every single one of us has gone through a series of events that contributed to bringing us to where we are today. However, remember to express gratitude for all of your accomplishments, regardless of how small they could be. Although it can be difficult, it is often the small things that have the most impact on our lives. One of the most significant barriers to gratitude is the world’s abundance of negativity. Life’s positive aspects are easy to overlook due to the negative events that also occur. As a result, people are prone to dissatisfaction. But once one focuses on the good things that one already has, contentment comes. As the saying goes, “It’s not happiness that brings us gratitude, it’s gratitude that brings us happiness.”
This is to say that I am grateful for a couple of things: first, to have discovered an organization that will allow me to make a genuine difference in the lives of others; then, for the opportunity to be a HAPI scholar; taking the major of my choice; and everything else I’ve been given in this life.
