Is there such thing as being “too grateful”?
I was born poor. There’s many points in my life where I go to any dumpster nearby a restaurant just to eat cause most people just love to throw their unfinished food away.
I’d be lucky to eat a piece of unfinished bread from a housing area. Only had 2 pair of apparels and washing it with rain water. I only had shoes when I found someone threw it away. Pretty much, I was homeless.
So anything that’s deemed normal, for me, will always be luxurious. Like buying clothes, buying food to eat, being in a car, etc.
Long story short, I was blessed with an opportunity, and worked my way up.
Years passed, and I moved to Singapore, have a high paying job, with a decent home. I made some friends along the way but..
All of them seems to be ungrateful.
All of them always complained about their food “not being right”, about their clothing doesn’t match their pants and shoes, about not being able to go outside cause it’s raining, about not having good looking accessories for their gadgets, etc.
Is this…a normal thing for everyone? They say that I’m “too grateful”.
They also say to me that with the huge money I earned now I could buy a huge house, but instead I chose to reside in a decent small house. With that money I could buy 2 cars but I choose to walk or use a bicycle instead. They got frustrated that I’m happy when I just cook a simple egg fried rice for myself instead of going to eat at a restaurant. They complained that my simple wardrobe is just my old clothes and most are secondhand clothes and nothing new.
“You don’t seem to demand anything in your life. You must demand all the time or else you’ll never feel happy” they say.
They have no idea what I went through. I don’t think they’ll ever experience it. I may be rich now, but I still look at even the smallest things as luxurious and simply just grateful to have it. Maybe it’s cause I came from nothing.
I don’t need to demand for happiness. I am already happy. But apparently for people around me, I’m not “normal”.