gratitude for home
I recently travelled to the US for a mini break and DEF CON with some I recently travelled to the US for a mini break and DEF CON with some friends. We visited Los Angeles (CA), Prescott (AZ), and finally Las Vegas (NV). As we spent close to two weeks there and talked about going back home, there was one common theme amongst our conversations about home: gratitude.
Here are some things that I am grateful to have back home (Sydney, Australia):
- social and medical security
- a more laid back life
- day to day infrastructure and transactions that just work
- eg, no tipping culture, tax pre-calculated when purchasing goods, nearly universal use of paywave payments
- food that is not overly salty, large, and loaded with cheese
- actually having a public transport system
- lower homeless population
Sure, we may not have all the bells and whistles here, or the scale of industry and economy here but I'll take a simpler, more egalitarian (though it's definitely getting worse at home), safer, and easy going life any day over more money and opportunities. I am glad I got to visit and understand that Australia is indeed where I want to stay.
I also realise the value of what I have and the importance of making sure I can play my part in maintaining and upholding that as much as possible through activism, volunteering, and not letting anyone take that away from us.