The Gratitude Project - Day 10

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Today I am thankful for the privilege of living in a house. That's right - I said privilege. I know that a lot of people feel like it is a right to own a home by the time you're a certain age, but the truth of the matter is that this doesn't happen for a lot of people. Look around your cities and towns at how many apartment complexes there are, and how full of people they are. That alone should tell you that not everyone has managed to snag this part of the American dream for themselves. Some had harder starts than others and lacked the support of a family so they could go to college. Others may have gotten to own a house, but because they made poor choices or because the economy decided to turn they lost it. There are many reasons why, almost as many as there are people, so we have to remember not to judge.

That being said, I know we're nowhere near owning a home of our own, and I'm okay with that. It's a lot of debt, and a lot of responsibility. I'd rather clear a few other things out of the way to be sure that we're truly ready first. That's not to say I wouldn't love to own my own home - it's just that I know we're not financially ready yet. I'm thankful for knowing that actually, because if we had gone along with so many other people who felt home ownership was a right in the early 2000's when they were practically giving away home loans, we would have been among those with a foreclosure on our credit reports I'm sure!

We've lived in apartments for a very long time, and this past year we were blessed enough to find a house we could rent, in a good neighborhood, that fit into our budget. We have a whole extra bedroom, a lot more storage, a fenced in back yard, a garage... the transition from an apartment to a house is a HUGE blessing!

Today, I am thankful for not only a roof over my head, but a pretty darn nice one to boot.