The other day I was talking with my friend Emma. She is someone I did not know before coming to KU, but someone I’ve gotten close with over the past year. I have to give some background to Emma. She is one of the most level-headed and independent people I have ever met. I have learned a lot from just being around her the past year, but one thing she said recently really stuck with me and made me think.
Emma said that her goal for this semester was to be able to find herself feeling blessed. She wanted to look around herself and just feel lucky to be where she was. The way she put it was she wanted to “be in awe of her life.” This really made me think. I don’t believe that this is a common thing for people to do, but it is so important.
After she told me this, I started thinking about all of the things I was so blessed to have that I usually take for granted. Take school for instance. I am so incredibly lucky that I am able to have higher education. I am leaning things that many people will never have the opportunity and I get to do it in a beautiful place where I meet people, like Emma, that make me a better person.
Once I started counting my blessings, I couldn’t stop. I found myself having better days and really as I like to say, “loving on KU.” I would walk to class and just be in awe of everything. The people walking around me, the birds chirping, the wind, even the loaded backpack on my back began to feel like a blessing.
Of course, I still have my bad days where I’m tired, I’m stressed, and my backpack feels like it’s making me sink into the concrete. However, Emma’s philosophy really changed my point of view. I see more of the big picture, rather than the tiny, slow steps I used to see. All it took was a change in perspective and a realization that I’m lucky to be where I am and I can honestly say that I am “in awe of my life.”