People of privilege rarely really think about how fortunate they are to be sitting at a Macbook Pro, scrolling through Facebook, and wasting their time on social media. For most people, their day consists of complaining, wanting, and expecting their desires to come to them in one way or another. This is the expectancy of the middle and upper class. Living life with an expected privilege, they have become blind to the poverty surrounding them.This is because the majority of people do not realize what life without technology, a roof over their heads, and a full belly is.

However, once in a while the rich better off people realize that despite their first-world-problems they are the ones living the good life. This is when you throw your extra change into the collection box at the gas station, give yourselves a gold star, and a pat on the back. If you're feeling extra generous, you will hold the door for the person behind you. After completing these two good deeds, we can sleep easy because we did something good for someone less fortunate.

With your privilege and loose change, you could be doing something so much bigger and important for those in poverty. But you don't. You think that saying “please” and “thank you” makes you a really good person. It doesn't. It's just polite and the right thing to do. You know what else is the right thing to do? To stop taking your accessories and things for granted and start doing something about the poverty and unfairness of the world around you.

What if you were the face of poverty? If you were the one freezing on the city streets with a wimpy piece of cardboard, begging for loose change. If you had to watch thousands of people pass by in fur coats and Starbucks cups keeping their hands warm. That would make you feel colder, wouldn't it? Because for every person that walked by, there is one less person stopping by. There is one less person willing to take a minute out of their day to try and make yours. That's pretty sad that of all the powerful people walking by no one even bothers to stop by and be humane.

That's one face of poverty.

Now imagine if you were an elementary school student that feared going home after school. What if home wasn’t a comfy place to relax, but instead a tower of terror where abuse and violence lurked around every corner? Kids in homes of abuse are more likely to perform poorly in school and have less access to clean, new, and brand-name clothes. All of the above can lead to bullying at school because bullies are most likely to be privileged and spoiled with no concept of what being in poverty is. So now, the kid of the battered home fears being bullied at school, but is more afraid of being beat at home. What would you do?

What you do is not give up hope. When you are in poverty, you work hard because you do not have another option. When life starts to go your way, maybe it's finding a job or having enough savings to go to college. You don't give up. Going from rags to riches takes time. The less fortunate is usually looked down on and judged. It may seem that being in poverty makes a person worse off. However, the girl or boy that does not see the value of a dollar, the strength of himself and the worth of his earnings is the one less off.

For all the times someone who is privileged takes their life for granted someone else is working hard everyday to make it feel like their life is actually worth something.

We wake up everyday and are immediately ready to rush around to cross off our to-do list. Too often are we stressed out by our studies and want to take more breaks and relax. But what if we took a step back and made a promise to ourselves to realize how lucky we are to be in the place that we are currently in? We would see wonderful friends and family who support us with our whole heart, a good education, and somewhere to go at the end of everyday. Never take what you have for granted because you never know when it could all disappear.