Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” I couldn’t agree with him more.

 

In today’s world, who doesn’t want to be someone else? Maybe someone prettier, more popular, more athletic, or more skilled. As humans, we aren’t ever truly satisfied with anything. Not with ourselves, our appearance, our lives, our clothes, or our wealth. But even if we aren’t truly satisfied, we need to learn how to be content - well, maybe not content but appreciative, grateful.

 

Maybe you don't have everything from Lululemon, but at least you have hoodies from Nike. Maybe you don't have a car to drive to school, but at least you can go to school. And maybe you don’t have the perfect “dream” life, but at least you are alive. Imagine how many people didn’t get up today. Imagine how many kids like you don't go to school all because of their situation. Imagine how many people wish they could see the sunrise and the sunset, walk without someone having to help them, and even wish they weren’t confined to the four blank walls of a hospital and attached to tubes and machines every day and second. You may not have the perfect life, but you have things that some people wish for.

 

Think of remote countries and a child from there may have the talent and skills to grow up to be the next Elon Musk, Michael Jordan, or maybe even Bella Hadid or Kendall Jenner. The only thing that keeps them from growing up to be those people is their situation. 

 

Think about waking up every day at 2 A.M. to walk 11 miles just to get water that you have to carry back to the shack made up of literal bamboo that you call home, the home that your dad and brothers built with their own hands. Now you may say in what world is that someone's reality, but I know firsthand what that life is like because that was my life. Before I came to America, that was my reality, but I didn’t have to endure that kind of life for long. But my parents and grandparents did. They suffered, worked, and sweated for my sake so that I could know and live a life better than the one they had.

 

So when someone laughs at me for being middle class or for being Asian or an immigrant, I don’t get upset. Instead, I am grateful for the life I have, because it is more than the lives of all those before me. And being lower-middle class gives me a unique perspective on life that upper-class people don’t have. So really, my situation helps me grow and be a better person because of where I’ve been and what I’ve been through.

 

Be grateful for everything and take nothing for granted because nothing lasts forever. I'm not saying if you're broke, stay broke because you're still better off than others. I'm saying to be happy and grateful for what you have, but keep striving for more because the hunger for more helps us achieve great things in life. Hunger for good things, for improvement, for your goals being met. But never hunger for perfection because perfection doesn’t exist and no matter how hard anyone tries, nothing will ever be perfect because that’s just the way of life. Learn to be happy because imperfection is uniqueness, struggle leads to triumph, and evil leads to good.