I grew up thinking cold showers were for torturing criminals and testing the limits of our nipple length. Jenny, as a Filipino native, thought differently.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, there are two things you should know.

The first is you should stop living under a rock. That’s just not practical. Homes are made of far better material. Get with it.

The second is how hot the Philippines is. The sun literally feels like it’s on top of you. Jenny has noticed this too. One of the first things about the US she commented on was how far away the sky is. One of the second things she mentioned was how big the people are. Perhaps the size of Americans is weighing down the earth and pushing us further from the heavens.

Many of the showers I took in the Philippines were quite cold. Some were even almost unbearable. The opposite was true for Jenny in the US. Hot water, with heat strong enough to damage your skin, was unfamiliar.

It makes sense. Why would anyone take a hot shower in the Philippines? Stay outside long enough and you’ll get the same result with an added bitter salty flavor pouring into your mouth.

I think a lot of people in the US don’t realize the choice between hot and cold shower is a luxury. Having a shower at all puts you in the top percentile among everyone who has ever existed. Basically, everyone who lived before maybe 1900 other than the most elite never had showers. They either bathed with dirty gutter water or allowed elephants to spray them with their trunks.

During my time in the Philippines, I grew a greater appreciation for warm showers and water in general. My second trip there, the city we stayed in experience a drought. The droughts in the Philippines are a lot different than the ones in the US. We just can’t water our lawns. Over in the Philippines, they can’t water their children or even have a water balloon fight!

The next time you hop in the shower and are forced to decide between super cold, super hot, or just right remember that not everyone gets this choice. Many of us have to settle with one option. Those who don’t better start appreciating what they have and make the most of that freezing cold ice water or burning cauldron of heat pouring from the shower head.