I've been taking a hard look at life, and to tell you the truth, I can't be more thankful. Living in your own bubble makes you magnify the shallow problems in life and unconsciously blow things way out of proportion, making things so much horrible than they seem. 

Seeing acquaintances from the past whose lives I used to look up to, having these nightmare lives, and most of the time, sugar coating their problems through social media, creating a facade showing happy and fulfilling lives yet are miserable, gives a shock of reality. Though I may silently whine to myself about all the things that are going wrong in my life, it's nothing compared to the hardships these people are going through, granted that we do live different lives and priorities, it's quite a reality check of counting my blessings. 

Appreciate your life a bit more. I'm going to say it straight out. Yeah I might be living in a small unkempt house, and half of my family is on the other side of the world, but hey I don't have to pay my own bills, my college funds, my food, and the fact that I'm dorming almost beside my university is all a luxury given by my mom. I miss the comfort of California, the people, the weather, the order, and it sometimes depresses me that I'm all the way back in this shit hole of a place, but we gotta work with what we've got.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.