Life is what you make it. I am sure everyone has heard this statement before. Until recently I always found it to be a contrived statement people just repeated to make themselves feel better. That is until I came to a realization that life is exactly that.

The joy of life is something that can be easily missed. In an age of easy information and constant connection to social isolation it is not difficult to get a negative view of the world. Watch the news for an hour and suddenly the world is a much darker and scarier place. That is exactly the point of view many people want you to have.

However there is another world around you. A real one in your own personal life. It is constantly before you. It is a good place full of beauty. It is only up to ourselves to see it. Don’t despair about things you have no control over. Instead build up what you do. For many of us that is not our outward situation but our inner self.

Don’t get yourself caught up in the affairs of foreign ideals. What is happening in some place somewhere far away has no actual impact on your life. Your living room or home in fact does. Clean it, take pride in it. If you find the world around you to be cruel, combat that with kindness affection and love. Even toward those who do not agree with you. Returning evil for evil will bring forth only evil. However just as some jackass can give you a bad day by a slight remark, you can also make someone have a good day with the same logic. Be the extraordinary situation when you give someone a compliment. Don’t lie, be honest but change the world slowly around you.

So don’t despair, be the light in the world.