Perspective.

It is defined as a "particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view".

It is waking up one morning to a message from a loved one that said they were out on patrol in a dangerous place halfway across the world. All the while, you were sleeping in a comfortable bed without any worry of danger in your home.

It is going about your everyday life of humdrum routine, only to find out that a child's life ended before it hardly began. It is going to a funeral and hearing "Let It Go" from the much-loved Disney movie, playing through the speakers and knowing that that lovely little girl would never sing it again.

It is seeing a grown man melt into someone's arms, erupting into tears because the light of his world has gone out and he is struggling to find his way out of that deep despair.

It is complaining about your relationship status and not knowing whether it should say "it's complicated" or "single" because you are on a break. Only to witness an old man crying because he just lost his wife of 50 years.

It is fretting over a small obstacle in your life, asking why it is you who have the hard life to live. Only to realize that there have been 115 billion people alive throughout the history of this world, and there are seven billion of them who are still alive today. You are only one of them, and you realize that there are some out there that are worse off.

It is crying over the fact that you cannot have the huge venue you want for your wedding, only to realize that there are some people out there that don't even get to choose their future spouses. They don't get the choice to marry the person they love.

It is being annoyed over the fact that there is not any hot water left when you go to take a shower and realize that there are nearly one billion people in developing countries that have to walk an average of 3.5 miles to the nearest water source.

It is complaining about bad service at a nice restaurant and leaving a bad tip. Only to see a woman and a child sitting across the street in dirty clothes and sporting an empty stomach.

It is getting mad at your teenager for putting a whole in the wall; making you have to leave to go to Home Depot to buy the products in order to fix it. Only to pass a house that has a tree cutting it in half because of the severe storm just the night before.

It is just one word. One word out of the 1,035,877.3 words in the English language to this day. Yet it is a word that, like the many examples laid out before you, has so much tied on to it. Some people will just take it as a word. Just one word out of the 1,035,87.3 words in this language. But others will take this word as something more. They will take it as a life decision. A life goal. A lifestyle. And it will change them for the rest of their lives.

Perspective.