Hannah Miller — Life goes by day by day and rarely do we, as a society, take a step back and appreciate what we have.

The cliché “you don’t know what you have until it is gone,” is true in every sense of its meaning.

The mindset of people in today’s society is not geared towards appreciating what we have and being thankful for the things and people in our life, but instead centered about things that are materialistic and unimportant.

Tens of thousands of victims and families from the upper East Coast are affected by the recent “Hurricane Sandy”.

When you hear about all of those people without homes, power, food and who have lost family and friends, you begin to realize how blessed you are for the “little” things in life.

The fact of the matter is that our health, homes, money, family, food and opportunities are not guaranteed. Instead value the people in your life that is what truly matters. Families such as the Tovissi’s have discovered that this is very true.

Senior Michael Tovissi was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in May and with this cancer he had a 50% chance of survival.

This was not easy, but the Tovissi’s have come together as a family and have realized that each other are the most important thing in their lives.

Tovissi is now in remission and healthy. Both he and his family realize how extremely blessed they are to overcome this illness and they have realized the strength he has. They also share that they are overwhelmed with the amount of people who support and love him.

No one ever thinks it will happen to them, to be effected by something so dramatic such as being a hurricane victim and no longer having a place to live or to be diagnosed with a cancer and being told you have a 50% chance to live.

Life can change in a minute. No one ever thinks it will happen to them, but the truth is- it could. Think about everything that you have going for you in your life, and appreciate it. Nothing is guaranteed.