Something to think

I know I have only been here for two weeks but I want to talk about something that I have thought about everyday since I have arrived here.  The United States is different than any country on this planet.  And I have come to realize just how blessed we are to be able to live there, grow up there, and raise kids there.  It is a land for the free.  It is clean.  It is safe.  It is good.  America is a place that looks ahead to a bright future full of the capability to advance and to make something of yourself, even if you have nothing to begin with. 

Here in Thailand, 90% of the kids at this orphanage dream about becoming a tour guide.  They talk about it all the time.  While you raise doctors, dentists and exceptional businessmen, these kids, out of everything they could be, want to be a tour guide.  But that is just it; they live in a place without much opportunity.  They do not have to luxury of becoming anything more without so much sacrifice.  They think their only option is to be a tour guide or retail salesmen or something along those lines.  Though don’t get me wrong; it’s not that these kids don’t work hard.  It is not that they don’t have dreams or aspirations or hopes.  No they have those; they just are not at the same magnitude as children in America.   But that does not mean they do not have potential.  No I see it in them.  One boy named Saw-teen knows three languages quite well and he wants to be a tour guide.  I asked him if he ever thought of being something more and he told me he did not know how.  He told me he wasn’t smart enough. 

I guess I am writing this because I have come to realize just how blessed I am to live in America.  And this does not mean that I am not grateful to be here in Thailand because I am.  I think these kids are having a greater impact on me then I am having on them.  But I just want anyone who reads this to notice just how blessed you are.  Heck, call your mom and dad and thank them for helping you become who you are because these kids here at the orphanage don’t have that blessing.  Look to the people around you and love them as these kids love each other.  Be grateful everyday.