The Ronald McDonald House

I woke up this morning to the sun shining through my window, and I felt the nice feeling of a Sunday morning. I love spring! Do you ever think about the preciousness of waking up in your own bed? Well, this morning I thought about my days I spent after my kidney transplant in the Ronald McDonald House in Palo Alto, where I didn't get to wake up in my own bed for a while. The Ronald McDonald House is a place for families to stay when their kids are seriously ill and needing treatment in the hospital. After my transplant, I needed to go to the hospital every morning to get a blood test to check levels of my medicine, to check my kidney function, etc., so I had the pleasure of staying at the House. Staying at the House was a humbling experience.

Anyone who has stayed at a Ronald McDonald House knows that the House has its own culture. When my family and I stayed there, we were surrounded by other people going through the same thing; there were two other girls about my age who had a kidney transplant while I was staying there. There were also two kids that were my age who had just received a heart transplant, and there was a little boy who had had a liver transplant in the past and was in need of a new one. This is the norm at the House. As you can imagine, all of the little day's stresses completely went away when I went there. It was amazing the perspective that I found while staying there.

From having these experiences, it pains me when other people (adults as well as kids) say that their life is so terrible because of something so insignificant like their phone died or the internet connection went out. When you find yourself getting stressed about something, try and think about how much worse it could be. Now don't get me wrong, we all have our moments, but try to be conscious of your reaction to something that happens to you today, and I will do the same. When something stresses me out, I will stop, take a deep breath, and know how fortunate I am that I got to wake up in my own bed this morning.