many people say that they appreciate the small things. from day to day life, there are many people that do not. by appreciating the small things people often consider themselves lucky for what they have. in my opinion this is very important. however, an important thing to realize is that society does not allow time to recognize the small things. a strict work or school schedule often over ride the enjoyment that a person should theoretically experience everyday.
this was brought to my attention through a conversation i had with one of my friends. as an ex member of the NCAA lacrosse team at my college many teammates have been coming to me to get a semi insiders point of view on problems they have. first i was asked my friend how it was going. she replied saying that no one gets it and that she doesnt love lacrosse. i went on to say that the love has to be there in order to play at a college level. i then asked why she was playing. she responded by saying that she was playing for one of her friends. then, she told me a story of a girl she was really good friends with in high school:
it was the first day of practice and her friend had an accident. i dont remember the details nor was it important in our conversation. she went on to say that from that one incident her friend has been in a coma now for a while.it was not planned and caught totally off guard. her friend was a healthy athletic girl with no past health problems.
this was not something i was planning on hearing. it was frightenly shocking. my friend went on to say that people that just don't get how lucky they are. every time she goes to practice at 7am on the turf and they have to run at a solid pace for 25 mins, she just thinks of how lucky she is to be in this world alive and well. how lucky she is to have the ability to run and the ability to notice how beautiful the world is that early in the morning. meanwhile other teammates are complaining on how tired they are, or how much they hate running or even how much stuff they have to do that day. she explained that she was playing for her friend since her friend obviously couldn't. to her its just annoying. nobody really understood her or took her seriously when she told them that story. i am not sure why she chose me to say that to but all i could say was that i got it and that i understood and that she was completely right. my respect level for her rose about 5 million points. that is something i cannot imagine going through or more importantly would have no idea how i would react to it. she is very noble for being such a dedicated friend as well as courageous for the way she is productively taking the situation she was put in.
this can only lead me to blame how complex, how stressful and how desensitized human life has become. it always takes a freak accident to make people get together and appreciate the true small things. universal examples are a natural disaster or terrorist attack or kidnapping or atomic bomb, etc. society does not have on overall appreciation on how lucky human kind is to have the technology, the imagination, and ability to do what they can. the conversation with my friend led to faith. it is a touchy subject for some. however, despite the religious view a person has, there always must be some level of hope and faith to keep the person going day to day.
an inspirational line is always "live everyday like its your last." whether a person is a full time student to a working parent to the local bum on the street this is so much easier said than done. of course being told that one line makes that shitty moment in your life better, but in the long term it does very little. unfortunately with the way society works, the big, drastic things that happen only lead to appreciation of the small things. to get society to change their way of thinking, it can only start with the individual. so my advice to try your hardest to appreciate what you have more than what you have no control over. people will learn from how you carry yourself and follow the idea themselves.
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