My wife and I have been looking around for a new apartment in the last few weeks. We are not in a rush and we know what we want. This is more like a scouting exercise to know which apartment complex we DO NOT want to stay at.

Two weeks ago, I scheduled a tour for last Thursday at one of the Broadmoor buildings in Omaha. The night before the tour, I looked up in my email for the confirmed time. When I used the keyword Broadmoor, I came across an email dated back to 2016. From me. What? Opening the email, I realized that I contacted the same building 8 years ago, from Vietnam, to inquire over availability.

Back then, I was just an incoming Master’s degree student who was trying to find a place to stay. I told them I didn’t need anything fancy. Just a place close enough to school and cheap enough to be in my budget $500-$600. If you know Broadmoor, you will know that’s far below what they offer. Of course, they politely turned me down.

Reading the email brought a smile to my face. Here we were, going to see the same building I looked at 8 years ago with a bigger budget and more freedom. It is proof that I moved a step forward in my life. There will be people who made a much bigger leap. But so what? My wife and I went to see that Broadmoor building and quickly concluded that it did not meet our expectation. In the past, I would have jumped at it. I used to carry groceries on my shoulder and wait for the shoddy public buses in Omaha to get home, regardless of weather. Now I move around in a car.

I used to be alone in Omaha. Now I have my wife and two cats who build this life with me. I used to have to watch for every dollar in expense simply because I only had $4,000 in my pocket when I landed in the US. Now, I can afford to eat out and buy stuff for my wife and cats.

I won’t lie and say that I have not looked at others and felt jealous. I have. At times, I feel that I haven’t done enough and I am jealous of my peers and some people I know personally. When such feelings arise, I strive to bring myself back to my first years in the US and the road I walked on. Yes, I could have done better, but we never know and to keep wondering about that won’t make me happy. Instead, I am happy sitting here and appreciating the things I do have.

And that’s enough.