If You Had $1 Billion, What Would You Do With It?

A few weeks ago, during Spanish class, the teacher was talking about the hypothetical infinitive form of verbs (yo haria). Since I am bilingual I volunteer frequently during the class so I offered to answer. The question was "If you had $1 billion, what would you do with it?" It didn't take me long to think about my answer. I'd rather not bore you with the details of it, but (and when I say this I don't mean to be egotistical about it) compared to my classmates, my answer seemed out of place. Many of them talked about buying cars, or going on shopping sprees; but for me, most of that would be given back to those who could benefit most from it.

That is what I am here to talk about today. With the Thanksgiving day approaching quickly, many of us may be too wrapped up in our own lives to take a minute and see what is going on around us. In a time where we should reflect on all of our many blessings, some of us can only seem to see what our lives lack. So, right now, take minute and think about 5 things you are grateful for. Were they materialistic things? Were they people? Or could you not come up with 5 things at all?

According to a study done by the Mayo clinic, being thankful for what we have can help improve our mood, boost our immunity, and even better our sleep. Being present and thinking about what you have has a countless number of benefits, as they put it, "If a pill that could do this, everyone would be taking it." This idea of taking things for granted also plays into the commercialism of today's society. Everyone thinks they need to have more, buy more, travel more; when, in reality, you seriously don't. Now I'm not saying it is completely pointless to give yourself a vacation, I'm just saying you should savour the moment, and not be constantly craving more and more.

This also plays into the decline in empathy over the recent years. A study by Scientific American concluded that people in 2011, were 40% less empathetic than their peers in 1980. If you want something more recent, according to a survey conducted in 2022, 2 in 3 Americans say they feel empathy has declined in the last years. This is astonishing and insane. You would think that with all the events that have happened over the last decade or so humanity would have learned to be a bit more considerate of their fellow human being, but nope. I don't want to get too political when speaking about this issue so I'll just say one last thing, certain people need to go back to kindergarten and learn to listen, not hear, but listen when someone is speaking.

To wrap things up, don't take for granted what you have this holiday. Hold loved ones close as you never know when things will change. If you are celebrating by yourself, think about how valuable you are. My mom always jokes about how when she's gone, we're going to miss her so much and realize how many moments we took for granted with her. I think she couldn't be more right. Have a wonderful holiday everyone <3

-XO, Eleanor