There is a fairly good chance that I missed the tone of sarcasm in his voice when my friend lamented about his first world problems. I struggle with satire, but I am certain he was being purely sincere when he was talking.

“Oh God, I’m so broke,” he said, starting off on a long rant about how easy some of the rich kids have it.

The net sum of all the price tags of the products he was carrying on his body was easily over $1,000. Trust me on the math. I got an A in calculus. While I have come to realize that poverty does exist in the U.S., for the longest period of time, it was on the list of the most bizarre concepts I had heard of.

I remember one of my first few days in the U.S. when I was talking to some other international students and we unanimously agreed on several boons that are taken for granted.

When relevant and true, I have no issue with people admitting their issues with money. However, it takes me an inexplicable amount of energy to stop myself from bursting out loud in laughter when people I consider well off complain about how hard they have it.

How do I define the term “well off”? While no generalizations exist, if you are not hungry when you go to bed and have a roof over your head, you should be grateful. Starving to lose weight does not count.

Given that I have spent enough space being preachy, maybe I should simply say this. Be grateful for today. While no one’s life is perfect, I would rather listen to people thank their stars than burn 400 calories restraining myself when someone complains about how terrible life is just because the font someone used in an email was Comic Sans.