America, It's time to stop complaining and start living

I took this photo while my brother and I were traveling through the poverty-stricken country of Cambodia. While sightseeing the backroads of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, these young homeless boys came running up to us and befriend my brother and I. They were malnourished, without any money, but full of smiles.

I look at this photo sometimes just to remind myself of how lucky I am as Americans to be living in this beautiful country of ours. The only difference between them and us is pure luck. We were fortunate to be born and raised in the United States, and they had the unfortunate chance of not being.

Nowadays there are so many constant moans, gripes, and complaints coming out of the mouths of Americans that I think we sometimes forget how fortunate and lucky we are to be Americans - to have the freedoms and opportunities we have. The News constantly spew so much fear, hate, and flat out garbage into the minds of our people that it’s regrettable that the “robots” believe everything they read or hear. It’s sad to me because our nation gets more divided each day, more skewed and more scared when in fact we should be getting closer and feel safer than ever before, especially with the advances of technology and communications.

I think Americans should travel more and get out of their bubble; crawl out of their little comfort zone and visit countries like Cambodia. If more Americans did this and refrained from traveling to their usual destination spots then maybe then and only then will they realize how fortunate they indeed are to be Americans and to live in this beautiful nation of ours.