At this point in my high school career, the topics of my discussions have boiled down to one thing: the future. What university did I get into? What am I studying in university? What am I going to do after university? What type of job am I going to get? Where am I planning to live? You get the idea…
While I am fortunate enough to be one of the people who can answer those questions, there are many overwhelmed teenagers around me who can’t. While it’s important to have your life figured out to some extent, it’s so easy to get lost in society’s expectations of you. In fact, it’s even easier to get lost in your expectations of yourself. So let me tell you right now: stop, take a breath, and just be for a minute.
Listen to the quiet around you, or the noise. Appreciate the sunny sky, or the rolling storm clouds. Learn to understand that where you are right now is amazing. The fact that you are alive right now is amazing, and you should never forget that. Today, I am going to share a compilation of my favourite quotes about appreciating your life as it is right now.
“Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses.”–Alphonse Karr
“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”–Oscar Wilde
“To be content with what we possess is the greatest and most secure of riches.”–Marcus Tullius Cicero
“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”–John F. Kennedy
“I would rather be able to appreciate things I cannot have than to have things I am not able to appreciate.”–Elbert Hubbard
“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”–William Ward
“Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.”–Ernest Hemingway
“Life is not made up of minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years, but of moments. You must experience each one before you can appreciate it.”–Sarah Ban Breathnach
“This a wonderful day. I’ve never seen this one before.”–Maya Angelou
“The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you.”–John E. Southard
“Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.”–Oprah Winfrey
“Stop thinking of gratitude as a by-product of your circumstances and start thinking of it as a world view.”–Bryan Robles
“You won’t be happy with more until you’re happy with what you’ve got.”–Viki King
“Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.”–William Faulkner
“There’s a sunrise and a sunset every single day, and they’re absolutely free. Don’t miss so many of them.”–Jo Walton