I Appreciate All That I Have

I Appreciate All That I Have

If you understand what our older generations have gone through, you will learn to appreciate everything that you have now. My mother's life experience has taught me this valuable lesson.

One day, everything that my mom had known, changed. Her whole life was turned upside down when she and her family had to flee from Vietnam because of communism. My mom, her parents, and two brothers secretly boarded on a fishing boat along with approximately 400 other refugees. The boat had a capacity of only 200 people, and had no food and only a little amount of water each day. For four days she was stranded on the boat, not knowing where she was, where she was going or what her future entailed.

It was 26 years ago when my mom first stepped foot in America. She had to start a new life with nothing except the clothes on her back. She and her family had to adapt to their new life in America. Learning a new language, finding a new home and being accepted by the American people were some of the obstacles that my mom had to go through. Luckily, she had her education. Apart from her new life, education has allowed her to succeed in the new world. She, along with her brothers, had applied her education to go to college and build their futures. They all graduated from college and currently hold good careers.

Today, my mother is a successful realtor and a financial planner. She teaches and helps people who were in the same position she was in. She helps them find a home and teaches them about how to save their money. She will never forget what had happened because it reminds her of how far she has come and never to take what she has for granted. She teaches me to work hard for what I want, and to always remember that a lot of work has been done for my lifestyle to be the way that it is today. Because everything that I have had has been handed to me, it was hard for me to understand life in a different place.

My mother had also taught me always to appreciate everything that I own. She teaches me how far a dollar can go. She reminds me that I cannot always have what I want. "We have to think about others who are less fortunate than we are," informs my mother. She tells me that we have to be smart with our money. My mother has taught me to see every positive aspect that can help build my future. I need to appreciate my education and my value in society.

I constantly ask my mother to tell me the story of how she came from Vietnam because every time I hear it, I am reminded of what I am most grateful for in my life. I appreciate all that I have. A lesson is learned from every experience, and my mom's experience has taught me everything I need to know to be happy in this world.

I am aware that not everyone has had the privilege to have parents akin to mine. We all can, however, we all can ask our older generations to tell us about their own struggles. Everyone has a story to tell; we can learn from what they tell us, in order to understand what it took for our lives to be as great as they are now. We can then appreciate everything that we have in our lives today.