Today, I realized how blessed we are to have the technology that we have. Perhaps, more so than blessed, how greedy and needy we can be.

Last Saturday, I broke my iPhone. Almost immediately my stomach sank because I knew that I would not be able to afford a new one. I was infuriated and frustrated, how would I be able to live without my phone? I’m so used to checking Twitter and Instagram every 5 minutes, hoping that I have some sort of “like” or “favorite” on the media I posted. I couldn’t log on to Snapchat to look at everyone’s “My Story”, nor was I able to communicate via text with any of my friends.

I’ve been without a cell phone for 5 days now, and I am amazed at how much our lives depend on these things. It’s really unfortunate. The fact that I consider my life to be a “struggle” because I’ve lost this form of communication. Then I remember that this is a luxury not many people across our nation even have.

Since I have not had a phone, I’ve decided to resort to a different form of technology for entertainment, television. I am one of those people that never change the channel I am watching; therefore I see all the commercials. It just so happened that the channels I have been watching all air commercials in order to gain revenue to help third world countries. Kind of a coincidence I thought, I sit here pissed off because I lost my cell phone while they have real problems. Almost as if I was meant to see these commercials over and over again.

I tune into ESPN quite often, and they discussed the news about Rio’s water being so contaminated that there is a high chance of Olympians competing there getting sick. This obviously poses quite a problem for the upcoming games, but forget about that, the people in Brazil have to live with this every day. People think of Brazil and there minds go to their great soccer teams, the beautiful girls and beaches. They don’t realize how severe the poverty is over there, and not only that, parts of the country are down right dangerous to live in with all the violence.

It’s not even close when you compare how good we have it in the states. People complain about this country non-stop. We’re poor, we stand for the wrong things, there is corruption. Well, it could be a hell of a lot worse. Our country is not perfect, but we have food. We have good hospitals and money to afford luxuries those other places cannot even imagine having.

There’s nothing good about being homeless, it’s devastating to see that and it is too common in the U.S. However, I think I would much rather be a homeless person here in America than I would be a normal citizen in a third world country. Most of them are homeless, starving, struggling every day to survive. Parents are sacrificing their dinner in order to make sure their children have enough food to keep them alive. Some have deadly diseases with nowhere to turn. It is just unimaginable territory to live in.

I’m sorry this turned into a bit of a rant. Being without my cell phone and coming to these realizations just provoked a lot of thoughts. I’m not saying you can’t get upset over a broken phone or something of that nature, but just always be sure to check yourself before you think you have it so bad. Remember how blessed we are. I am sitting here in an air-conditioned home, food on my lap, writing this blog on my computer. I’d say I have it better than most.

Every night before I go to bed, I say thank you to god for giving me such a great life, and that I am very blessed and fortunate to be living the way I am. There are so many things that I have been given in my life that I feel I do not deserve. Every time I am going through struggles, I try to think to myself that I really do have it better than most. As cliché as that may sound, it’s so very true.

I step back and take a look at the family I have. I realize that I am lucky to have such great people in mine, and that we are still united as a family. Others are not always so lucky. Fights happen, divorces, members pass away unexpectedly. I consider myself fortunate to not have experienced any parts of my family breaking off from an erratic event. I have phenomenal parents, and they raised me to become the person that I am proud to be today.

In a couple weeks, I will be heading off to college. For my brothers and I, we expected to go to college from the moment we began school. We thought of it as an automatic happening. However, I now realize this is not the case for many. Some have to work their asses off just to be able to afford it. Parents are picking up extra jobs and begging for overtime. Teens go straight from school to working long hard hours at a minimum wage job, trying to map out how much they must earn to go to school. I did not even have a job in high school. I was able to play three sports and enjoy all of my weekends. Going through high school, it never dawned on me how fortunate I really was in this aspect. I would complain about practice and how much time it took up, when in reality I was privileged to have the opportunity to be playing in the first place. There were a lot of kids who would do anything to be in my position.

I’m healthy. I don’t have to deal with any deathly diseases. I can wake up everyday and live a normal life without any worries. I cannot imagine, nor do I ever want to know what it is like to have to go through things like chemotherapy. I go to sleep upset that I have to wake up early for work tomorrow. Some people go to sleep worrying about whether or not they are going to be alive in a week, wishing that they had the opportunity to work. For all those that are sick, I have an insurmountable amount of respect for both you and your families. Stay strong.

Thinking this way really puts things into a new perspective. It’s so easy to forget how good we have it. We all have struggles and we are going to go through tough times, but it’s important to remind ourselves that this life we have been given is truly a blessing.

We are so blessed to have family. They are our friends, our therapists, our guides, and our support system all packaged into one. I came to the realization of how much I love and need my family when I was without them for a very long time.

I went to study abroad over this summer, I left in early May and just got back a few days ago. I was very excited for this experience, and I really did not think much about being away from my family for so long. There were too many other things on my mind about the upcoming journey I was about to embark on. I had never been away from them for an extended time. Probably a week at the most back in middle school when I went on a vacation with a friend, so this would be new territory for me that I would soon find out I was not all that prepared for.

The first couple weeks were easy, I was so busy getting adjusted to the lifestyle and seeing new sights that I was distracted from everything else. Once things started to settle down, it started to hit me. I thought about all the family dinners I was missing out on. I missed being in the living room watching the TV with my dad and brother until 1 o’clock in the morning. I missed my mom asking me how my day was. She is one that loves to ask questions. Previously, I would have told you that this was an annoying habit of hers, but now, I can really appreciate why she does it. Anyways, I had kept contact with them through text and a couple calls, but we all know that is not the same as being with them in person. I began to miss all the things that really I took for granted before.

I had a blast in Europe and would not trade that experience for anything, but I was so excited to be back home. I am looking at family time in a whole different light now. It has only been a couple of days, but I am already trying to make sure that I am appreciating the moments I have with them more than I was before. I’ll be taking time out of my day to just talk with my mom. I’ll be making more opportunities to hangout with my brothers. I will try connecting with my dad and continue to build a strong relationship with him. I encourage all of you to have this same type of approach when it comes to family.

Spend time with your family and don’t just tell them that you love them, make it evident through your actions. Please, if you’re in a situation where grudges are being held, do your best to get rid of them. I understand that there are different circumstances, however I feel that most of them can be overcome with some effort and want-to. Holding a grudge is definitely not worth missing out on one of life’s greatest blessings.

Something that I hope everybody is blessed with in their lifetime is finding their one true love. Nothing can compare to that feeling you can get from somebody that you absolutely adore, and I sincerely wish that everyone gets the chance to know what its like.

It’s funny actually; when I met my wife, never did I know she would become the love of my life. I found her attractive, but I don’t think either of us expected anything to come of us. We met through friends and would see each other when our groups went out together. The more we got to know each other, the closer we got, and the more we were discovering things that we really liked about each other. It’s kind of interesting to look back and see our relationship steadily grow. Some people will say that they have experienced love at first sight. We definitely took a different route; I think both ways are equally interesting to look back on.

Of course, everything at the beginning of relationships is great. You become infatuated with each other and the romance is evident, it’s the easy part of a relationship. The true test is a year or two down the road, what are the feelings then? Sometimes, you feel your love starting to fade out. My wife and I actually dated for 5 years before getting married. After spending these years together, we knew that our love for each other would be eternal. I will admit, it’s a different feeling that I have now then I did during our first few months of dating. However, different does not mean worse. It does not mean this at all; the love I have for my wife is the best thing in my life.

Since my wedding day, my life has changed for the better. I wake up every morning and am reminded that I am sleeping next to the person that makes me so happy. Doing simple things together is so satisfying. Cooking with her, watching TV with her, just the opportunity of being in her presence is gratifying. It’s crazy, the infatuation we can have for one person. Every little thing they do we fall in love with. All their quirks and flaws become our favorite parts about them.

There really is no way to accurately describe the feeling that this type of love can give you. It’s something you have to experience on your own, because no words can be put together to do it any justice. My advice is, do not be scared to put yourself out there. If you have been through heartbreak, do not let that be a fear that holds you back from fully loving again. Do not stress out over meeting the right person either. Your day will come, probably unexpectedly, so relax because your time is not running out. Something like this is worth waiting for. Love as hard as you can because that feeling is one of the greatest blessings that we as people can have.