Some colleagues this week have been asking me about my birthday and how I plan on celebrating it this year. When we were discussing it, I thought about all the people I’ve met over the years who dread reaching their birthday, saying it’s not worth celebrating, that getting another year older stinks, that they just want the day to be over with and move on. The more I have thought about all these negative comments, the more I have realized that everyone who says this absolutely has no gratitude for their life and health. I thought about my friend who battled cancer for two years who wondered if she’d even reach her next birthday or the one after that. I thought about my experience with whooping cough and how I had moments when I wondered if I was dying and thought how much I’d taken for granted having good health. I thought about the quick deterioration of my grandmother when she died over 20 years ago, how she was perfectly healthy in February, got sick in March, suffered a stroke in April, and finally died in October of the same year. We don’t really know what’s going to happen tomorrow. We might be healthy today and get diagnosed with whooping cough or a life-threatening illness tomorrow. Hell, my ribs are still bruised and I am still coughing a month after getting sick. Despite all of the pain and this extremely long recovery period, I feel grateful that I didn’t experience the worst of whooping cough — thankfully for me, no broken ribs, hernias, or brain damage here. I’m grateful I’m here to celebrate 30 years on this earth, even if I don’t think life is fair and I know that there are a lot of terrible, selfish, and frankly dumb people in the world. Because I know that even though all that crap exists, there are still good souls on this earth who want to help others and make the world better, and there are a handful of amazing people here who love me and would sacrifice for me. And that’s enough to be grateful and look forward to another year of life here on earth. I believe those articles I read about how just thinking about what you are grateful about can make you a little happier each day because thinking about those things gives you a little less time to think about everything that is wrong. It’s focusing on the positive versus the negative. You can’t look forward to tomorrow if you only focus on what is bad.