Grateful to Drive in Bay Area

At work, a member of my team from Moscow is here in bay area for the week. A sweet Russian lady. During our communication, one facsinating idea that she spoke of is how she enjoys driving in the area. Who would have thought? I was a bit surprised, and some people who had been living in this area probably think she is nuts. But it is all understandable once she explained. By that I mean, what I could understand through her heavy Russian accent at least…

• Traffic in Moscow is horrid, in terms of road condition, traffic arrangement, and how close people drive to each other.
• I didn’t get the whole story, but somehow she could not get to office on car. So perhaps parking, space problem, or bad city planning?
• The last thing is the availability of Japanese vehicles, which never crossed my mind as a potential problem in Russia. (How little I know of the world!) Compare that to the amount of Toyota, Honda, Lexus, Acura, etc. in the area!

All in all, what I am getting at is the fact that how easily it is for us to take things for granted, when certain things are always there. Then we forget to be grateful and cherish privileges that are granted to us. So before you complain next time, imagine how things could be worse because that is the truth — things can always be worse.