You Don’t Know What You Have until It’s Gone.
As life goes on, we are constantly learning from all of the lessons that life has to offer. We often learn these lessons through first-hand experience regarding what works and what doesn’t. One of the lessons of life is that we don’t often appreciate what we have until it’s too late. I have personally had a few experiences that taught me about being grateful for the things in my life – technology, my health, and my family.
I learned not to take technology for granted when I was forced to go without it during a blackout that lasted for two days. It was summer, I was living in an apartment on the 26th floor and I was working as a computer technician. One day, without any head’s up, an earthquake caused a blackout that paralyzed the city for two days. Imagine having no electricity. This means no water, no heat, no cell phone, no Internet or TV, no elevator – the list goes on. Life became disastrous and inconvenient. Having to carry a 20 liter tank of water up to the 26th floor one step at a time, not being able to shower or cook any food, not being able to talk to my family and friends, no air conditioner when the temperature went over 30 degrees, and the food rotting in the fridge made me realize how easy it was to ignore the basic yet important elements that I had on a day to day basis and how little I appreciated them before. After time passed and the lights were back on in the city, I was happy and grateful for all of what technology has to offer to my life, and then I promised myself to not take it for granted or overuse it anymore.
A serious incident involving losing the complete use of my arm taught me not to take my health for granted. When I was younger, one of my favourite things to do besides playing sports with the rest of the boys in the neighbourhood, was to play the piano. In an unfortunate accident, my arm was broken in a few places and the nerve system was damaged to the degree of losing the complete use of my arm. I was completely devastated and depressed about not being able to button up my own shirt, not to mention not being able to play piano, volleyball or football with the other kids. Luckily, after eight months, we found a professor who performed two surgeries on my arm which helped me to regain the use of my arm. I had plenty of quiet time during this period to acknowledge the true value of my health and to never take it for granted from that incident going forward.
I learned to respect and feel most grateful for my family after losing