If there is anything I have learned in the past few weeks, it's don't take anything you have for granted. I know it's cliche and said all the time, therefore I feel like it often loses its meaning, but you don't really think about how powerful and true the statement is until you actually lose something or someone you just expected to always have.

We are often too caught up in the thoughts of what we don't have that we don't take the time to appreciate even the big things in our lives, much less the small ones. We are all so much more fortunate than what we believe, we just never take the time to stop and look around. I am always hearing people talk about how they are stuck with an iPhone 5, or a 2004 car, or that they don't have the newest pair of shoes. But think of how lucky we are to even have these things when there are people out there who don't have anything. There are people out there who went to bed last night thinking everything was going great, just to wake up and find out someone they love has passed. Accidents happen, tragedies occur and we are not capable of preventing them. But what we are capable of is appreciating every moment we have in these lives.

It's something that happens in all of our lives. We become complacent in different aspects of our lives. We expect things to always be around, but think about life without your phone, or your laptop. Even deeper, think about life without your loved ones, or the ability to walk. When you make yourself aware of how blessed you really are, that is when you learn to appreciate the “little” things in life.

Life is too short to waste our time thinking about what we do not have. What you get out of it depends entirely upon your attitude. The things that truly provide happiness are usually right in front of us. You don't really know what you have until it is gone, either. You think your parents will always be here simply because you don't know life without them. You get comfortable in your relationships and things are done in routine instead of with passion. It's not until after it's too late that we realize just how good we had it. Shouldn't we all just be grateful for the food on our table and the roof over our head? We live in these mansions, go to these schools that cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars and we are still finding something we don't have. So next time you find yourself wishing you could have something bigger and better, just take a step back and think about how fortunate you are to have what you do. So people would do anything to have even half of what you do.