Work the past 2 days was hellish. The power went out at the data centre which houses the company’s servers, and the backup power system failed. Our services were out for most of yesterday and today. This led to a torrent of phone calls and emails from our customers which was to be expected. Some were understanding, “shit happens, eh?” Some of them were angry and abusive but as demoralising as it is, we’ve learnt not to take it personally.

It’s typical though. When things go well, we don’t hear a word: thank you’s are rare and compliments even more so. But the minute something goes wrong? Woohoo.

It got me thinking. Sometimes, we tend to take for granted the people who are closest to us. When they do things that are expected of them, we don’t thank them enough or even at all. I know I don’t thank my mom every time she does my laundry or cooks for me. Likewise she doesn’t thank me for taking out the rubbish or buying the occasional dinner, or when she needs me to drive her places. And it’s all because we are expected to do the things that we do.

I reckon we should say “thank you” more, even when we feel the other person should be doing the things that they are doing. I think we should feel less entitled to things and favours because we think that we’ve done what we were supposed to do, and so it’s only fair. I think we should feel more grateful for the little things that the people in our lives do when we ask them to do it, and even more so when they do it without us asking.

So yeah, thanks mom for cooking dinner tonight and every other night; thanks dad for always vacuuming the house; thanks Marvin for always bringing over pork products from work. And thanks Snoop for always cheering us up and helping keep all of our blood pressure low and reminding us always to appreciate the simple things in life. And thanks to everyone else for simply being in my life.