As a college student, we're constantly busy. We're working hard in school, and we always manage to work even harder outside of school. We've immersed ourselves into student organizations, Greek life, honor societies, new student programs — you name it and we're probably a part of it. We don't join these organizations for the recognition or to put on our resumes. We join them because we're passionate about the mission and vision of these programs, and we share the same values.
With that being said, we put a lot of time and effort into the things we do for our schools, for our peers and for our friends. We work endlessly to uphold our values, and we've learned to never seek recognition. But in a society where life only continues to spin harder and faster, we find ourselves working even longer and harder to keep up with the pace of life. And often times, we find ourselves feeling underappreciated and sometimes even worthless. We've all felt this way multiple times within our young lives, and I think I've finally started to understand why.
We grew up learning that we shouldn't seek recognition for the things that we do, and in return, we've neglected the give recognition to people when they do deserve it. We're constantly surrounded by people who go out of their way to give someone a hand or to make a situation better. While we say "thank you," sometimes that's just not enough. You see, the phrase "thank you" has become some generic phrase that we throw around out of courtesy. But do we even mean it anymore? I mean, honestly, sometimes it's like there isn't even meaning behind our words.
Now think about this. When it's a friend's birthday, we send them a heart filled text message outlining everything we love about them and why we're so grateful for them. It's all out of love. And when we receive those texts, we feel loved and appreciated. Or when something tragic happens in the world, we're reminded of how lucky we are to have such supportive and loving people in our lives, and that's when we call our loved ones and tell them how much they mean to us in our lives. But that's not enough. If the people in our lives truly means as much as they do to us, we shouldn't rely on birthdays or hard times to remind us to show our appreciation for the people that make our lives worth living. It should be something we do on a regular basis.
We're living in a world where everyone feels underappreciated. Little did we know that it's our own darn fault.
