Welcome to 2017! It seems as though the entire human race has unanimously agreed that 2016 was a frustrating year, to put it nicely. Now that it’s finally over, we feel elated. Yes, those twelve terrible months are long gone, and we can only go up from here. I’m not usually one to make a resolution for the new year, but this year is different. I found myself reflecting on the goals I had for myself to ensure that 2017 was entirely different from 2016. As I was drifting to sleep after celebrating New Year’s Eve with my friends, I settled on a goal I found reasonable enough to carry through the whole year. In 2017, I hope that I am consistently mindful of how lucky I am, no matter how tough life seems to get. Every blessing that we have received, especially the ones we rarely think about, are privileges given to us that we shouldn’t take for granted. As my mom always reminds me, there is always someone out there worse off than you. Often, when someone catches the sniffles or loses their voice due to a cough, I will hear them say, “Wow, I really should have been more thankful for my ability to breathe smoothly and swallow without any pain.” I have even caught myself taking for granted life’s simple pleasures of being in perfect health and being completely comfortable. This seems to be the main problem; we are so focused on the insignificant things within our lives that we forget to appreciate what we sometimes don’t even think about. However, we shouldn’t forget about these things, because the reality is a huge portion of the world’s population is not comfortable. They are suffering, and they certainly do not get to enjoy most of the blessings that we categorize as “simple.” Recently, I had my wisdom teeth removed, and though I wouldn’t say I had any more problems than the next person, and my surgeon did an amazing job, the recovery process seemed like it would take ages. For those of you who haven’t yet had your wisdom teeth removed, don’t fret. I assure you that you’ll be normally functioning again within two or three short days. The part that seemed to be the biggest struggle for me was the fact that I couldn’t eat normally post-surgery. You don’t think of having an appreciation for your back teeth until you have to eat with your front teeth (quite awkwardly), and I’m willing to bet you haven’t thought twice about a yawn being painful. Even though these things are small, the lesson I learned from them is that we shouldn’t wait to be thankful for something until we don’t have it anymore. We should work to make the phrase, “You don’t know what you have until it’s gone” prove to be a lie within our lives, whether we’re talking about the ability to eat normally or even the possibility of losing someone close to us. No blessings we have been given in our lives are small blessings, and anything can be taken away from us at any moment. I truly hope 2017 is your year, or at the very least, that you learn to celebrate all of the things that make your life so special.