To some of us, it may seem like a pretty basic circumstance. We were raised by two loving parents who taught us everything we know. They drove us wherever we needed to go, and they fed us, and they sheltered us. They listened to our problems so they could help us work through a solution, and when mom couldn't be there for whatever reason, she would say to ask your father.

I'm from a very small town in Westchester, NY. It's your typical run-of-the-mill suburbia and it's predominantly inhabited by families with two working parents. So, as I grew up and graduated from high school, I got to know the families of my closest friends and became fully comfortable with the idea that I would walk into their homes and happily greet both their mother and their father; and they would greet mine. Everything just seemed, well... perfect.

Since I've come to college, my naive self has realized that this is not always the case; and I should consider myself lucky.

Some of my closest friends here, at Penn State University in State College, PA, did not come home after a long day at school and sit down for dinner at the kitchen table and tell both their mom and their dad about the numerous activities they did that day. Maybe they had to do so over the phone, or maybe they couldn't even speak to them at all.

Deaths and divorces, I've been exposed to it all. It makes me thankful for the life that I have, but now I also feel like it makes me more aware. Aware of the fact that there's much more to the world besides little Hawthorne, NY.

Especially now, since we are all home a lot less throughout the year, take the time to call or FaceTime your mom and your dad to catch up. You don't know how many people would kill to be able to just simply and easily speak to both.