Over the course of the past few weeks we have all seen, experienced or heard about a lot of tragedies that have happened. While all of these are awful things, they have reminded me of how important it is to cherish every moment we have, and to appreciate every person that happens to cross paths with us, whether it be good or bad.

Over time we forget to remind our loved ones that we love and care for them. This may seem like a very small thing, but the sad truth is we don’t know what could happen at any given moment. Tragedies such as the one in Orlando, can happen on any given day. It is important to remind our loved ones that we love them, and to cherish every moment we have with them.

Throughout high school I always wished for graduation, or wished to be another grade older, even now in college I find myself wishing for graduation. Wishing time away is the same as wishing away all the memories I have made with people throughout my years in school, I should treasure every moment I have in the time that I have it because someday I may not be surrounded by the people I am surrounded by today. Someday my parents won’t be here to take me out for lunch during my lunch break, someday my friends won’t be just down the hall from me. Little things like that are things we shouldn’t take for granted just because we want to move onto another chapter in our book.

These tragedies also remind me how lucky I am to have memories with my grandfather who is deceased, my aunt and uncle who are deceased, old friends who have drifted away from me, friends who are just acquaintance and even strangers who I’ve only had one conversation with. Most of my memories that I have with these people are good memories, but not all. However, I am thankful for all of them, the good ones help me remember things that at that time made me happy, and most of the time still made me happy. The bad ones remind me of lessons learned, we have all made mistakes but I have come to realize that mistakes are what shapes a person into what the person they are now.

A lot of times we take people, time and memories for granted. When tragedy strikes is usually the time we are reminded of how important these three things are. My closing words for this article are appreciate what you have, appreciate what you have been through, and appreciate those who love you, those who hate you, and those who watch over you.