This summer, I had the incredible opportunity to visit India. I experienced many things in this very diverse country, but for the most part, as a millennial would say, I was shook.
My family and I stayed in New Delhi, India for 15 days.
India is very, very different from many countries. Not only the languages and the people, but behaviors, government, healthcare, and education systems all had me thinking about how much I take for granted on a daily basis.
I couldn't walk in the streets without constantly hearing the horns as people were passing one another or warning the other vehicle that they were going too fast to stop in time.
The sidewalks were littered with street dogs that you dare not touch nor acknowledge, paper and plastic thrown all over. The sidewalks were mere slabs of concrete, broken and wobbly, holes everywhere.
The child and women beggars following you from market to market with their hands out repeating over and over, "food, money, ma'am?" because their pimp told them the white people have money.
The police standing with their sticks looking for an excuse to use it. Not really concern for a person's well-being at all unless they were of a certain financial status.
Watching ambulance after ambulance trying to drive through the maze of traffic with their unresponsive patient in the back with no seat belts nor medical personnel. Knowing that they are going to a hospital that does not have its own medical supplies. The patient is responsible for purchasing such things before arrival.
Where parents work so hard to put their children through private school because that is the only real education they can receive.
India made me reflect. The next time I am upset with America I will be remembering these experiences. I will be thankful for our laws, emergency medical personnel, police force, healthcare system, clean streets, and my education. You truly do not know what you have to be thankful for until you experience what others are living.
