If you have a roof over your head, a beautiful backyard fenced in garden, an air conditioned home, and neighbors that wave to your everyday, consider yourself blessed. If you can drive to Starbucks, windows down, music up, and zero fear of being attacked -- consider yourself blessed. If you have the privilege to travel anywhere you'd like, whether its for vacation, business or a mission trip -- consider yourself blessed. If you can walk out your home with a different color of skin, and not fear prejudice -- consider yourself blessed. If you can walk outside your home to water your plants with zero fear of getting shot or bombed -- you are blessed. If you can wear whatever the heck your heart desires -- you are lucky. If your shopping mall, grocery stores, local family owned business and banks are still running, you live in a wonderful world. In Greece, many family-owned businesses, grocery stores and shopping malls are gated shut and only God knows when they will open back up, due to their crumbling economy. If you have a fridge and pantry full of too much food -- please don't take it for granted.

First stop. Gabon, Africa.

1.5 million population, with one of the largest oil reserves in the world. The country is full iron, uranium, manganese and rain forests. It is a country of wealth, and a lot of it. However, the people are starving. They lack clean water system and children do not have access to education. Many of the people die from HIV due to lack of healthcare. Most people die from regular illness that are treated here in America with a few doses of Antibiotics. People are miserable, people are dying. The ruling family owns private jets, and own handbags that cost over $20,000. After 50 years of rule, their bank account grows. They give speeches at the United Nation, and people applaud them. They hand over all their natural resources to the French. There people are dying as a result. We may think we are products of our American government, that we are slaves. But let's take a minute to count our blessings. We have endless grocery stores, we have educational opportunities for men and women, with ample amount of universities to choose from. We have accessible healthcare for all classes. It is time we stop complaining about these things. You want free college? At least you have the opportunity to go to college. You want cheaper healthcare? At least we have healthcare. You want organic food and non-GMO? At least we have food. Not to say that these arguments are invalid -- but let's do something to get more affordable education, healthier foods, and better healthcare. Let's stop complaining and start acting. Let's stop protesting for a higher minimum wage for the people. Let's instead educate our people. We have this vast and highly-regarded higher education system, yet millions cannot afford it. Nothing can be free, but let's make a change. Let's make it accessible, lets make it affordable.

Next stop. Oakland, California.

Shootings after a holiday gathering at an Oakland church, 5-year-old boys getting shot, 92 homicides so far in the year 2016. Still, thats a great number compared to 175 homicides in 1992 (Oakland Mofo). A loving, devoted father, Twan Shavers, shot dead in front of his home. He was a human rights activist and was a part of #prayforOakland. He had a baby daughter, whom he cared and loved for unconditionally. And nobody knows why he was shot. He was against gang violence, he condemned it. However, he stayed in Oakland, and suffered the consequence. The people of Oakland fear death every day, the moment they step out their house. And we have people in America who live in perfectly safe neighborhoods, and refuse to get off the couch and take a walk outside out of pure laziness. We need to take more advantage of our privileges. If you can walk outside of your home to take your puppy out on a walk without the fear of a gang member coming to shoot you, I'd say you are very blessed. There are people in our own country who cannot do such a thing without fear.

Last stop. Syria.

Children, mothers and fathers, constantly in fear, living in a war zone, bombs flying over there heads. It kills them. 60 million people or more around the globe are refugees from their homes due to war and murder. If they don't die from being on the sea for a long period of time, they make it to "slum-like" camps where they patiently wait months or years for asylum. In these camps, the families are only allowed a limited amount of water a day. Here in America, we waste water bottles and sink water constantly by letting it run too much while we brush our teeth, or leaving the water bottle half empty and throwing it away. Yet these camps don't have enough water to give? If you ask why these families are leaving and not going home, they respond by saying that it is very bad over there. When asked where the rest of their families were, they say that they are afraid to leave. These people don't want to work for Daesh (NISIS -- Non-Islamic). Daesh will threaten the people if they dont fight with them. If they don't fight, they are killed. There is no alternative. However, here in America we have a total misconception about terrorism. "They are horrible people." Yes, the leaders of ISIS, the creators of ISIS aren't human beings. But we have to remember, just like the Holocaust, many people are being forced. Threatened their lives, threatened by torture -- to fight with ISIS. Daesh has been hypnotizing and torturing the people of Iraq and Syria and we choose to ignore that. We are very lucky we weren't born into Syria or Iraq. We are lucky we don't have to escape our homes because it has now turned into a war zone. We are lucky we don't have to camp in tents and beg for more water for our babies. We are lucky nobody is forcing us to become a terrorist.

I know the news has been messing with everybody's emotions lately, and of course there are bad people in this world. But take a look around you and realize you are one of the lucky ones. And you can make a difference in other peoples lives. Spread the love, the positivism and the humanity. Its time we started a silent revolution, by creating a chain of optimism and blessings. We may not be able to stop Daesh (ISIS) ourselves, or end the fraudulent activities of the Gabon government. We may not be able to end all gang violence, or racism or police brutality. But we can spread the love. We can create a movement of love and anti-hatred. We can show people that kindness and compassion still exists. We can show people that the news doesn't define our world or our lives. We can work on small movements to fix the world we live in today. One smile of awareness at a time. We need to start using media as a weapon of peace and not a weapon of mass destruction and depression.