Thanksgiving Day is near. What are you thankful for? I’m not talking about those new pair of shoes you just got or the new TV that’s sitting in your room or even that new car you have parked outside. Are you thankful for the simplest pleasures in life? Do you value your family and keep loving memories alive? Are you grateful for who you have become as a person?

In today’s society it’s easy to get stuck in a rut and not stop to take a breath and be happy for all the things you have in your life right at that moment. Today people value things. They value money. According to Psychology Today, Americans spend more on shoes, jewelry and watches than on higher education. Do you see the problem here? We do not need materialistic items to make us happy.

Sophomore Joey Aranda said, “I actually stop and think about it a lot. With my grandma passing just recently, it has really opened my eyes up. It’s more about spending time with family and what you have than anything else. That and I just found out that I’m going to be a dad, and that excited me more than anything in the world right there.”

The most important thing you should want to consume is happiness and a full heart. Value it, people. It seems like you only see people being thankful is in the month of November because Facebook makes it into a 30-day challenge. Everyday in November people think of something they can talk about and decorate it in a cute paragraph to see who will like it later. People need to be thankful everyday of the year because you never know when somebody will slip away. You never know if you’re going to see the special people in your life again when you walk out the door. This is said continuously but people still overlook the statement.

Gary Damron, Social Science instructor, said, “I think maybe we don’t realize in America now just how much we have compared to the rest of the world; that we actually are the affluent society, so that kind of makes us take things for granted. That would include family and things that are meaningful. People could live on a whole lot less than they do but they’re not willing to make that sacrifice to take care of other problems that exist because we like our standard of living and therefore we’re not grateful. We’re not willing to live sacrificially to address the needs that exists in the world or even in our communities.”

Be thankful and count your blessings, keep your morals and values strong, love your family, cherish everything you have in your life. You never know when you’re going to lose someone you love. You never know how long something will last and you don’t want to hold that in your heart after it’s too late.