Life in a New City and Being Thankful

 

Living in Lagos, the only thing I bothered to be thankful for was for life. When I am asked to count my blessings, life will top the list and not many other things after. I would have to think hard to find things to be thankful for but living in a new city has changed this. I am thankful for more things. Not a lot more and its not that I am unappreciative, its just that I take certain things to be normal and oblivious about certain things which I take for granted. In the mode of being thankful. Here are a list of things I that come to my mind currently which I will update regularly.

 

1. Thankful for Good Weather

It would seem basic but you need to go through numb fingers and a bad cold day or miss the bus and have to wait outside in the cold for the next bus before you appreciate good weather and what it means to have sunshine. Winter is here in D.C and I cannot wait for it to be over. I am counting down the days. Feeling cold and having cold chills run down my spine is not a great one. My sister down in Chicago has it worse than I do, so I am thankful that I stay in the DMV which is fair compared with other cities in the US.

2. Thankful for Shelter

It is amazing the large amount of homeless people I see everyday. I am not sure if I was oblivious to this in Nigeria but I only remember seeing homeless people one time in university on my way back from a night club. It’s a terrible experience, I can tell you for free especially on cold nights. I honestly wonder how they do it. I cant imagine sleeping outside in the cold. Rent is crazy expensive. I share a flat and I have to pay $900 a month. Guys, I pay 324,000 Naira  monthly in rent, its freaking crazy. Plus this is one of the barest minimums. I am thankful that I can afford to pay.

3. Thankful for Health

Health care is EXPENSIVE!!! No jokes!!! I have never experienced the feeling of not being able to afford health care but two days ago, I did. I subscribed to school insurance which is about $3,000 by the way and when I started having tooth ache, I remembered oh yeah, I have health insurance, I can go see a dentist. Made an appointment, got to the dentist only to find out that my insurance does not cover dental. There is a distinction between a health and dental insurance. Ok cool. How much to do a walk in without insurance. $150 to get a dentist’s appointment. For the first time, I had to reschedule my appointment solely because, I couldn’t afford it at that moment.

4. Thankful for Friends

I am not one with a lot of friends and making friends isn’t really one of my numerous soft skills. Trying to adjust to a new city and being alone has made me thankful for good friends. To appreciate the few in my life and I constantly wish I could just bring them over here. Life will definitely be more fun. It can be quite boring out here without people you have known for years.

Its no where near Thanksgiving which is usually in November but here are a bunch of things I am thankful for and I hope this spurs you to think inward and cherish everything, everyone and every good moment you have