"Too Much"

In the race of excess, sometimes I'm completely convinced that I'd win.

It's not that I think that I live extravagantly. I drive a car that may or may graduate with me, I still live in a smelly dorm room, and I've been making slightly over minimum wage for six years and I'm thousands of dollars in debt in student loans. My mother is unemployed and my father works in a coal mine. This isn't exactly a story of grand beginnings.

But I still find myself surrounded with stuff. And I'm not really sure how or why this happened. I've got more clothes than I know what to do with. I've got a list of songs on my iPod that I've never listened to that is probably longer than the entire collection of music of some people. I have movies that I've never watched or that I've watched once and never touched again. I've got video games that I may never play given my decreasing amount of free time.

This year I feel like I've gotten a sense of awareness that I've never had. I don't really think I know exactly what I'm aware of just yet, but I've been growing into new knowledge more than before. I complain about not having enough money for the things that I want, but there are people who don't have water to drink in Africa. In the grand scope of things, I've really got nothing to complain about.