"Privilege"

Every day I tend to complain about trivial things. Before I wake up I complain about the temperature in my room, it’s almost always too cold. I then get to school and complain about how tired I am, because I slept for a shorter time than usual. Around 3^rd hour I complain about my hunger, because I ate too small of a breakfast. Throughout the day I complain about tests, homework, and grades, because I strive to be a good student. After school I complain about getting in cold water to swim laps in the pool. Later at around 9:45ish I complain yet again about homework, since it’s the only thing keeping me from sleep. This cycle repeats itself every day of every week of school. These all seem like first world problems. That’s because they are.

There are people who don’t have a room or time for sleep to complain about. There are people who wait days to eat food, not just 2 hours. There are people who want to go to school and learn, but are forced to stay home because of their culture. There are people who want to play a sport but can’t because they don’t have proper facilities in the area they live in. Now I know this sounds very cliché, and like that story our parents tell us when we don’t want to eat our dinner. But it’s true. Our first world problems are nothing in comparison to people’s problems out in the world.

There are also certain people in the world who look down on others who don’t have the newest smart phone, or don’t where clothes that are in style and from name brands. Cashiers sometimes look down upon people who use a coupon to buy an already discounted item. People are allowed to think what they want to but they need to be careful before they make their opinion public.

“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one … just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages you’ve had.”

This quote from “The Great Gatsby” sums up my point in just a sentence. We are too quick to judge people just by how they seem on the outside. We don’t know what inner struggles they may be facing. I live in the city of Troy; I have a roof over my head and food in my fridge. I have many advantages over many people in this world and I should be grateful. Others may live in a huge city where high rent, congestion, noise, and pollution affect their way of living in a negative way. In the novel this quote mainly pertains to differences in wealth. The rich have money so they are assumed to be smarter, better looking, and kinder than the poor person next to them but that is not always the case. Stereotypes have taken over the world in a bad way. Not everyone who is struggling to get a job is stupid, and not every wealthy person has a great personality.

When we complain about such trivial things as stated in the first paragraph, it may seem okay since we think everyone around us are saying the same thing. But if we were to state opinions like that and everyone around the world could hear us, we would be considered very inconsiderate and oblivious.  Those statements aren’t considerate to a person who is suffering from the lack of those necessities.

We should think for a minute before we judge others, and we should always be careful about what we say. Just because we have a certain privilege doesn’t mean everyone else around us does.