So my topic is based on something I've been thinking about a lot lately; I believe in counting my blessings.
When I got back to school after Christmas break, the first week I kept feeling lonely and homesick and then my weekend was really lonely too. There were several times when I was eating meals alone or walking alone to class and it just made me depressed. One morning was especially hard because my friends said they would meet me for breakfast and then didn't. Later we realized there was a misunderstanding of the time we were to meet, but I just thought they had slept in and ditched me. Needless to say, breakfast that morning was lonely and discouraging and I think it subtley caused my mood to worsen until I was miserable. And of course, that's no fun at all. I realize that if I count my blessings, focus on what's true and real and encouraging and joyful in my life, I won't be miserable. My plan of action: As I walk around campus, mainly when I'm alone, I look around me at the trees and the sky and the domesticated squirrels and I thank God for His creation and the beauty He gave it, and I appreciate it. Then I list all the things I'm thankful for, for instance, my warm bed, warm clothes, food and nourishment whenever I need it, physical health, my five senses, my family, the fact that I can call them whenever, my friends both here at Purdue and from home, and many other things. Also, I realize that my life could be a lot worse, so I thank God for bad things not happening. In this way I get my mind off of myself and I feel better.

Speaking of thanking God or thanking in general, I don't think it happens enough anymore. I think people are becoming greedy and self-centered and they take for granted the blessings they've been given instead of appreciated what they have. Realistically it could all be taken away in a moment. Fire, water, disease, and man's thirst for blood, among other things, could at any moment destroy life the way we know it. Not to be morbid, but that fact ought to cross our minds a little more often, if just to make us more thankful for what we have. It would take our minds off of ourselves and maybe this world would be a better place.