Roxy Hammond

‘Tis the season for thanks. We’re a few short days from a sweet four-day weekend, when we will gorge ourselves on turkey and potatoes (and pumpkin pie, if you’re like me. Mostly pumpkin pie, actually) while surrounded by our friends and family. But while we’re surrounding ourselves with food and happiness, will any of us really think about what we have to be thankful for?

I read an article yesterday about the survivor of a hellacious beach house fire down in North Carolina. This 20-year-old sophomore leapt out of his third-story window into a canal below to escape the raging fire. Unfortunately, none of his housemates/closest friends did the same. Not even his girlfriend managed to make it out.

Maybe I’m being overly dramatic, and maybe it’s because this guy is close to my age, but my heart aches for this kid. I would not wish that on my worst enemy. Here he is at the age of 20, and he has to ask himself, “Why was I the only one to survive?”

Not to mention he has to live the rest of his life without those friends. He has to wonder what life could have been like if they were still in it.

Reading this made me fully realize that I have absolutely nothing to complain about in my life.

Yeah, some days I feel like jumping off the roof of my apartment would be easier than completing all the tasks at hand. And some days I feel like I am going to fail at absolutely everything I attempt. Life can be crappy like that sometimes.

It’s so easy to complain about the tests and homework I have to do. It’s easy to get tied up in the little dramas in your life, and wallow in your self-pity. Yet, sometimes I really need to step back and realize that all of my problems are temporary. Overwhelming, but temporary. In six months, I will graduate from SDSU, and I will pack my things and move on with my life. None of the A’s or B’s or C’s will matter to me one year after graduation. Staying up late to finish an assignment will seem trivial, and all my stresses from this year will be fading in my rear-view mirror.

That is why I am thankful.

I am thankful that all my problems in life are fleeting and temporary, and I have a solid foundation of friends and family that are there for me. I am thankful that I did not have to leap out of a third-story building to save my own life, only to pick up the pieces of losing loved ones when I reached the ground.

I am thankful that so far in my life, no one has taken such precious things from me as my closest friends or family members. I am thankful that I have never truly known the pain of loss. And I am thankful there are people out there that can help this young man piece his life back together after such a tragedy.

Meanwhile, I will be studying for tests and completing homework. And I will be stressing out about my life, and all the things in it.

But I will remember this guy and his loss and how much it made me realize how good I really do have it.

And I will hope everyone else has so much to be thankful for as well.

#1.882518:1072751925.jpg:Hammond, Roxy.jpg:Roxy Hammond, Sarcastic Cynicisms: