6:30, my alarm sounds, and I sluggishly get out of bed. The usual routine of getting ready is in action. I take in the daily bible verse and send a morning hello to my boyfriend. Walking back into my room, I decide on a brown dress and brown boots. I start to get dressed and put on my jewelry when my earring backing falls, as it does on occasion. I look down to find it, but it’s nowhere in sight. Dropping to my knees, I sweep the floor swiftly with my hand, attempting to be gentle and not crush it. A panic arises, and sudden memories flash across my mind. My boyfriend of five years gave me these earrings two Christmases ago.

At the start of our romantic relationship in 2011, he gifted me a beautiful open heart necklace around Christmas time, and I knew it was something special. I could picture him flipping through the Kay Jewelers catalog and getting advice from family and friends. “Will she like it,” he would say as apprehension sinked into him.

A few years later, it would all come falling down, literally. The necklace fell off somehow, due to a broken link, perhaps. It was gone, and I was devastated — angry with myself for losing something so sentimental. Though, as mentioned, on Christmas Day of 2014, he gifted me with a simplistic pair of earrings — something that I would wear from day to day. I loved them, but he wasn’t done. Another box flashed before my eyes, and as I opened it, I was shocked. The necklace that I had once loved was there, but there was something different. He put our birth stones on it and an engraving that said forever and always — the phrase we live by.

The memories collapsed, and I began to get devastated and beg God to let me find it over and over again. I was in a sea of worry and frustration, but as I began to cave in, a small shimmer of light permitted from a small silver backing. I found it. It was there. A sense of relief fell over me. A piece of me was back again — one I had expected to be there. One that I never gave credit to.

I think about what I don’t have almost every day and how I can get to where I want to be in life. It doesn’t help that the media gives us unattainable goals. We look at celebrities on the T.V. screen — the glamorized version rather — and wonder why we aren’t living that way. Though, we are all human; we all face many of the same struggles.

Tell your loved ones that you appreciate them. Cherish even the minuscule joys of life. We spend so much of our lives waiting for monumental moments to happen. Like the first step we take, the moment we turn 21 and enter adulthood or getting married and raising a family. Though, there are those minuscule things that occur every day that might seem insignificant to some, but make a huge impact on many.

Like how I feel when a day of sunshine comes after a week of rain, or a bad day permits and someone sees I’m not my usual self, so they ask what’s wrong. Getting complimented on my appearance when I haven’t even tried. The first bite of Buffalo wings and fries. Finishing a riveting novel. Spending the whole day full of random adventures or binge watching my favorite show. I could be here all day.

How would you feel if the things you’re accustomed to having and the people you’re used to seeing were gone in an instance? You never know where life will take you or those who are around. We don’t really pay attention to it all until it comes crashing down, and for what? It’s because our focus isn’t on ourselves, it’s on all of the people and things that are around us.

-Jas