We all have a lot to thank our parents for, especially all the lessons that they have taught us throughout the years. Sometimes, however, you don't realize they were teaching you something until you are almost all grown up. So thank you, mom and dad, for teaching me how to treat people.

My parents are some of those people who you read about in books; they came from modest families and worked very hard to build a better life for me and my siblings. This of course is everyone's dream: to make sure your kids are better off and have more opportunites than you did. Because of this, I have grown up much differently than my parents did. Oftentimes the problem with becoming successful and providing your kids with everything they need is that they never share the struggle you did, and they never end up learning the value of hard work.

I grew up in a pretty nice neighborhood, attending private schools, and generally surrounded by people who were equally as fortuante as me. Coming to college and somewhat entering the real world, I am not interacting with a much more diverse group of people, with one difference being everyone's financial situations. I always thought that my parents had done a good job with teaching me the value of money, but I guess I never noticed how good they did.

I could have easily ended up being a spoiled brat, thinking I deserved everything and should get everything I want. Growing up, it didn't matter how well off we were, my parents never handed me anything. Toys were things you got on Christmas and your birthday, not when you were crying in the middle of a store or when your best friend got one. And if I wanted something more, I had to do chores around the house and earn it.

Partnered with learning the value of money was learning how to treat people who don't have as much as you. I have been unpleasantly surprised in coming to college and seeing how some people are just as fortunate as me but for some reason were never told that they weren't better than everyone else. My parents taught me that no one is your lawnmower, your delivery person, or your server. They are people, and they deserve to be treated as such.

My mom once made the UPS guy brownies because they are friends and it was his birthday. On Thankgiving my dad insists that we fix a plate of food and bring it to the securtiy guard on duty in our neighborhood. I know that I should always say thank you to everyone, hold the door open for everything, and ask cashiers how their day is going after they ask me how mine is. I am so lucky to have been brought up learning those lessons, because apparently some people weren't.