The bus screeched to a halt in front of me as I frantically looked around for my friends. We had been heading to the latest Harry Potter movie, but I had run back to school to grab my jacket. Leaving everything with my friends to hold, except for 75 cents, I figured they would wait for me at the 28 bus stop next to Stonestown, but when I came back, they were nowhere in sight. Thinking bitterly that they had left without me, I boarded the bus, trying to catch up with my friends before the movie started. Little did I know that they had taken shelter out of the wind at the neighboring 29 bus stop back at the mall, and that I would cause them to worry about my whereabouts for three hours.

Moments like these are when you finally realize how much you take for granted — and boy, am I guilty of this. When my friends did not even stop to eat while they were waiting for me, did not stray from the neighborhood where I had left them and searched from the mall to the school and back, I realized how fortunate I am to have such caring friends.

I have never been pressured into smoking, drinking or taking drugs, and I have always had someone to lean on. To me, it is normal that I get to see snow at least twice a year, carry cute new accessories including my chocolate look-a-like pencil box and jacket cell phone case and bring enough food to share with everyone around me. I don’t even think twice about having my good life.

Like any typical Asian family, my family focuses on education, but we also love traveling. I have stood among thousands to witness the historical moment of the inauguration of America’s first black president, I have stood under the spray of the Niagara Falls, I have stared in awe out of the top of the St. Louis Arch and I have sweated in the sweltering heat below sea level at Death Valley.

Now, at the age of 17, I look back on all that I have gained and I am thankful that my parents were willing to let me explore, especially to make sure that I would have experiences regardless of my gender, which is not always the case in a more traditional family.

I had taken for granted how good my friends were to me, and I had mistakenly thought that they would be so inconsiderate as to leave me behind. I am lucky to have such a good life, but I am even luckier that I was able to catch myself so that I can stop to appreciate it. As Ferris Bueller says, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

A version of this article first appeared in the Jan. 28, 2011 print edition of The Lowell.