The Value of Life

Today's post may seem a little random to alot of people, but there is a reason behind it, so let me explain to start. A little over a year ago I volunteered to help run a philanthropy week because honestly, nobody else would step up and I was bored. Well running this philanthropy week ended up changing my life and giving me a whole new prospective on what I enjoy doing. Since then, I have helped out with a few other philanthropy events, and done a fair amount of community service. I also recently applied to be on the executive board of my local Relay For Life group. Just yesterday I received an email saying I got a position. That is a brief overview of my thoughts leading into this post.

Too many people in today's society do not value life. They go about running from place to place and not enjoying the day. My goal is not just to help people by raising money and volunteer efforts for those who need it, but to help people learn to take a few minutes every day and smile. The smile is the greatest gift we have, weather you believe in God or not, somehow you are here on this planet and have the ability to smile and it needs to be taken advantage of.

I was once in an interview for a leadership position and one of the questions was something along the lines of "what is your first thought when you wake up?" My response was "It is morning, time to smile!" No matter rain or shine, everyday we have is a new day, a day to try something different, meet someone new. Today could be the day you fall in love, the day you finally try that one crazy thing you have always wanted to do, or even be your last day on earth. Accidents happen everyday, it is sad but the truth. So why not wake up every morning and smile?

Every time one of my friends comes to me with a problem, weather it be relationship troubles, career troubles, family troubles or something else, my typical response is to ask them what is the worst that can happen. They normally say something about losing their significant other, or losing their job etc. From there I tend to point out that their are plenty of other worse things in the world. For example if you are fortunate enough to be reading this post, then you can afford a computer or have access to a computer. Take a trip to the Ivory Coast, or parts of China, or Brazil, and take a look at the life style their. With the huge advancement in technology that America has made, we have also corrupted ourselves and helped our citizens forget the real meaning in life. My point is that your worse case may be a dream for someone else. Take every day you have, make the best of it, and when something bad happens in your life ask yourself how it could be worse, is this really that bad and what can i learn from it. When you wake up tomorrow, or when you finish reading this try putting on a smile, see what happens.

Keep on Smiling.