As a child I was exposed to a lot of poverty, which now that I have grown I am thankful for. This may sound a little crazy but, I have learned to see the positive side to what I experienced, and I know that what I experienced all those years living in an atmosphere full of humble and hardworking people has made me the person with a grateful heart that I have become.

When I was in my mother's womb, my dad unfortunately was sent to jail. My mother could not afford to pay all the expenses for me to go to school in Sinaloa, Mexico, so I had to travel at age four all the way to where my uncle and aunt lived in a little village in Durango, a place called "El Pie De La Cuesta." I was so little that for me this was an adventure, when for my mother and dad this was the hardest time of their lives. This village was so beautiful that many called it "heaven's paradise." It was full of mountains and rivers and lots of trees, but everyone who lived there was very poor. We lived in a very humble house that was constructed out of adobe, and we took showers in the rivers. All of our food came from what we harvested, mainly beans and corn, the milk from some cows they had and some chickens. There I lived with my seven cousins, my uncle and aunt. My main purpose of going to this village was to be able to study in the little schoolhouse that they had across the other mountain. It took me and my cousins one and a half hours to get there.

I can still recall the first day of school. I was the smallest one there. In this class they had kids from kinder all the way to ninth grade, and we all learned together in the same class by only having one and sometimes two teachers. Every day we used to walk through the green mountains and rivers; it was like a wonderland to get to our school. Our sandals were old and ripped, and our clothes were also old but were always clean because we only had about five shirts and four pairs of jeans each. Our toys were made out of old cans and candy wrappers that floated in the rivers, but that was enough for us. I remember being happy and laughing feeling like I had everything. We use to eat two times a day or sometimes just once, but thanks to the universe we had lots of trees with fruit and clean river water to drink.

Every afternoon we went harvesting in the big beautiful fields of corn and beans. I went because my oldest cousin, Rosa, told me many amazing stories while I was placing the little bean seeds in the holes she was making as she was walking in front of me. I did not know that there existed a more materialistic world with more of everything until my dad finally, for his good reputation in jail, was set free. He decided to look for his dad who had gone to the U.S., leaving his sick mother, his brothers and him when they were young. My dad found his father in Idaho, and he called to ask him to please get the citizenship documents for my sister, my mother and me for us to be able to come to the U.S. His father accepted, and my dad got his citizenship.

I remember the day we entered the U.S. through the Arizona border. Everything was so beautiful and big to me. This is funny because it was only Yuma, not a big place. But I was not used to seeing something as rich as that in real life, with streets made out of pavement and stores where people can buy food and clothes, and there were these fancy people in their beautiful cars. I can still recall the first day I saw my beautiful elementary school. I felt like the luckiest person in the world.

All of my life had changed by coming to a new country. However, although the language was new and my friends, my clothes and my school were changed, something that I had developed in my personality from when I lived in Durango did not change, and that was my attitude of gratitude. People have often asked me why I seem to be always happy, and so I have started wondering what causes happiness in people. It came to my mind that maybe some people are just born more positive, while others are more negative, but that did not convince me. With time I made a great discovery that has changed my life. I have noticed there may be a million ways that someone could become more positive and be happy. While a person can find all those ways, there is just one, and that is the power of being and feeling grateful. Many people's reasons for suffering are because they keep comparing themselves to those who have more; many are not happy with what they have. These people live for the future and forget to live in this moment, which is all there is. As Lao Tzu once said, "If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present."

Being grateful for all I have has given me a sense that everything is a miracle and there is magic everywhere. It is great to have dreams, but it is even greater to enjoy the journey towards those dreams. With gratitude in our lives we can wake up every day counting our blessings. In this way we will be working harder for what is to come and at the same time feeling grateful about every present moment. I believe that everything we focus on multiplies more and more. If we focus on all our blessings, we will have more of what we have put our focus on. One of my favorites sayings is, "It is not happy people who are grateful, it is grateful people who are happy." This mostly summarizes how I feel inside about gratitude and the power it can have on our lives.

In my life I have learned to cherish what I have now and enjoy it to the fullest; however, I have also learned to dream big. I want to make a change in the world. Everyone can learn to do this; no one has to be raised in a poor family to develop a feeling of gratitude in his or her life. We only have to change our thoughts and open our eyes to all those miracles that we already have: watching the moon, the stars, the flowers or taking a shower in the river as I used to do in Durango, perhaps walking barefoot in the fresh green grass, having a good time with family and friends, watching the birds sing. All these beauties in the universe are given to us for free. If we learn to admire them, our souls will feel rich inside, and that will give us a sense of completeness. By being happy we tend to act with a more positive mind, and that opens us to great opportunities wherever we go. This leads us to happy and successful lives. Therefore when someone asks what is the secret of happiness, my answer is and will always be "gratefulness."