Happiness is a choice.

 

Here’s a shocking fact: bad things happen to everybody. Okay, so maybe it’s not that shocking. But for a few months earlier this year, it was shocking for me.

 

It’s not like I’ve never had anything bad happen to me; of course I have. But the way I felt was new – and for two months, I wallowed, I pity-partied, and I told everyone who would listen about my plight.

 

At some point, I got sick of being the only person at my pity party, and decided that I could create the life I wanted. I signed up for a marathon, I registered for my first pageant in three years, I started blogging more. And in the last several months, amazing things have happened: I landed a fantastic job, I ran a marathon, and I earned my way to the Miss Virginia stage – somewhere I never thought I would be competing. All of those things have happened not because I am special or lucky, but because I refuse, on a daily basis, to allow things I cannot change impact my attitude.

 

Bad things happen to everybody. And most of the time, they’re bad things that you have zero control over: getting rejected from your dream college, someone breaking your heart, someone saying something mean. But you know what I’ve learned in the last nine months? While you have zero control over what happens, you have 100% control over how you react to it.

 

Positivity is a choice. Being happy is a choice. Proactively going after everything you’ve ever wanted in life is a choice. Change what you can, accept what you can’t, move on from your past. Forgive people who have hurt you, and stop letting them take up your time, your thoughts, and your energy. All of those things are too valuable to be taken up by people and things that do not serve you.

 

Today, be kind to yourself. Go for a run, read a good book, eat your favorite ice cream. Call your best friend or your parents, make that recipe you’ve been dying to try from Pinterest, volunteer. Write down all of those things you’ve always wanted to do, and go do them.

 

Why not?