This I Believe
I believe that we need to be grateful for each day we are handed and not take anything for granted. I have come to find that many people get up each day with a sense that oh it’s just another day and go about it without appreciating the fact that it is another day they get to go about living. The truth is you never know when it’s going to be your last day, or your last chance to do what you love. Everything needs to be appreciated for what it is. My dad was always the one to tell me this ever since I was young and I don’t think it really hit me until my sophomore year of high school when I tore my MCL playing field hockey at camp and was unable to play the whole season. Going from playing hockey or running everyday and sometimes dreading it to being unable to walk on my own really opened my eyes to taking things for granted. No one really understands how much something or someone means to you until you think or know that it is gone. Not only that, but think about the amount of people out there that would love to be doing what we do but for some reason or another are unable to. Meanwhile we are complaining or letting how lucky we are go unrecognized. My second experience with this hit me even harder. It was my freshman year of college in September after a Friday night field hockey game, with another game on Sunday, our coach had asked the freshman to be ball girls for the two teams that were playing on Saturday and for the rest of the team to be there to watch the game as well. Just moments before the game our coach had called us all to meet in our pre-game meeting spot and had asked us to sit down. She began talking to us and we knew it wasn’t good. She soon came to tell us that one of our teammates, and a close friends, father had passed away after a car accident the night before. Everyone broke into tears and called there parents realizing that that could have been any one of our parents, all of us knowing that we do not always show our parents the appreciation needed and take what they do for us and provide for us for granted. This teammate had not seen her father since he had dropped her off for pre-season in August, never expecting that to be the last time she would see him. This is when I finally really understood what my dad had been telling me all these years about not taking things for granted. Now I wake up being thankful for for each and everyday that is brought my way and stay as optimistic as possible, because when it comes down to it you never know which day could be your last. This is why I believe in not taking things for granted and living each day to its fullest. Live for the moment and do what makes you happy.