I look to my right I see a touch screen phone capable of pretty much anything, I look to my left and I see a nice warm bed thats waiting for me to sleep in, and I look forward and type on a 2014 macbook air that cost over $1000. We grew up in privilege. We grew up with the best opportunities in the world, with the best access to education as well as all the necessities that one could ever need and much more. And yet we are never as grateful as we should be. The bottom line is this. We got lucky. Period. By some miraculous turn  of events we made it into the world, for the most part, happy, healthy and safe. Looking at all these videos today of children drowning whilst trying to escape a war ridden and ultimately unsafe country, looking for a brighter future, to two boys scrambling around on the ground picking up leftover pieces of bread so they can get some sort of meal into there bodies, makes you think how lucky we actually got. We could’ve been that kid, a child that has to live in fear every single day of their lives as to whether or not they would eat or drink or even live to see the next morning. I don’t care what anyone says. We got lucky. And we should be thankful. Thankful that your roof doesn’t have a gaping whole in it. Thankful that we have a meal to put into your stomach so we wouldn’t have to starve. Thankful that most of us have loving families that would do anything for us to be happy. And yet we rarely are.

There is no such thing as FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS. It may seem funny at the time, but in reality its a joke to even say it. We have minor problems in our day to day lives, but if you fail a test, chances are you can make up for it. If you break your phone, you can fix it. If your hair is not on point or you outfit isn’t swag as fuck then we can always change or come back at it the next day. We have, as a generation growing up in a first world country, an array of possible solutions that can ultimately make our lives easier. In fact our day to day living is much easier than everywhere else in the world. Yet we still find a way to complain, to sook, to compare our problems on any scale to that of people across the world. For the first time in our lives, why don’t we, as youth, stop and be thankful for the fact that  we were given so many opportunities, not only in education or food or tangible goods, but in life in general. We should be thankful that we and our kids have the best possible shot at life before we or they were even born. Because even though we get one shot at life, we get the best shot. The world is open to us. WE don’t have to worry, and even though we are exposed to these things, we don’t live by them. We don’t live our lives by that one underlying factor, that we got lucky. That maybe, just maybe we didn’t deserve the life we were handed, but by some external grace we got dealt a hand that allowed us to live happily.

So the next time you feel hard done, the next time life throws you a curve ball and you bitch and complain about it, remember that your parents chose to bring you into this world, a safe and secure one where you can thrive, and chose not to put you into a deep, cold, treacherous waters because it was safer than the land they lived on. Remember that there is a world of opportunities out there for us and it is up to us to realise that no matter what happens in life, we should always be grateful that we got to live it here and now, where someone out there would much rather be.