Not only do college students rarely have time to keep up with the news, but when we do read it we only get further depressed by all the negative news on our feed. Over time, it's hard not to be cynical when all the world seems to be is a place full of bombs, death, injustice, crimes, and idiots. But being up to date on what is going on is important; therefore, I have distilled for you the most important recent events that are bad followed by the good stories to lift you up. However, if you are a good news first kind of person then you can scroll down and read that section first. Or you can just skip the bad news altogether.

The Bad News:

1. U.N. Climate Talks In Paris

Now these climate talks would seem to be good news for our world, but unless you're a devoted optimist, they are not really all that hopeful. Basically, leaders from around the world are meeting in Paris to attempt to come to some sort of agreement on how to stop climate change by greatly reducing carbon emissions. Although an actual agreement may be formed it seems very unlikely that it will be met. The talks seem more like a political show versus an actual genuine attempt for change. Of course, I would love to be proven wrong and add this to the good news cycle later on.

2. San Bernardino Shooting

This shooting that happened just on the heels of the attack of the Planned Parenthood really racks up the tolls for mass shootings in the U.S. this year as well as make for some of this week's worst news. 14 people were killed in this latest shooting at the Inland Regional Center and they have yet to fully identify all parties responsible. These sort of tragedies make us question not only humanity in general, but our personal safety as well as the safety of our loved ones on a daily basis. It seems that no place is safe from this gun violence.

3. The Presidential Race

This is just general bad news in terms of our candidate choices. It seems that each week the candidates take turns doing or saying something very stupid making us doubt our democratic system. While people vote for Bernie Sanders as TIME's person of the year, Donald Trump makes more thoughtless and ridiculous comments and Carson claims that Syrian refugees don't want to come to the US and other idiotic comments. This is the kind of bad news that makes you want to move out of the country.

4. ISIS

Again, this is just a generalization of all the bad news that has been happening at the hands of ISIS. The biggest news, of course, being the recent attacks in Paris. Unfortunately, we have only seen growing paranoia and terror at the hands of this extremist group as well as endless debate on how to react to the attacks. The sheer death and fear associated with this group make them the ultimate bad news item that will, sadly, be on our radars for a while.

The Good News:

1. The Zuckerbergs' Latest Charity Pledge

Let's start off the good news with some money. On this year's "Giving Tuesday", Mark Zuckerburg and his wife announced that they would donate, over the course of their lifetime, 99 percent of their Facebook shares to charity. This is basically giving away about $45 billion dollars to charity to specifically help with causes involving human potential such as education, medicine, and communication. They paired this announcement with that of the birth of their daughter.

2. Japan Saves Turtles

Turtles make everyone smile right? Well, these adorable creatures have not been feeling the love from trains on the coast of Japan. As the nearby turtles attempt to slowly cross the train tracks many get stuck or are not fast enough to miss the speeding the trains, causing endless fatalities. Japan's solution? Build narrow pathways under the tracks for turtles to crawl through and make it safely to the other side. These pathways have already been installed at two stations and have already saved many turtles.

3. Russia Gifts France With A Puppy

Nothing is cuter than puppies and happier than seeing countries get along. So that brings us to the German Shepard puppy gifted to France by Russia after the recent terrorist attacks. During those attacks, the French Anti-terrorist Police Unit lost Deisel, a seven-year-old dog on the squad. The puppy gifted by Russia is named Dobrynya and was gifted by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. This show of unity in the wake of the tragedy in France lights the way to our defeat of these terrorists.

4. People Pay Parking Tickets with Canned Food

And last but not least is the 'brilliant idea good news. This month in Lexington, Kentucky, residents with outstanding parking fines will be allowed to pay in canned goods at their local food shelf. So instead of paying 15 bucks they can donate 10 cans of food and help families in need this time of year. Last year they received almost 6,200 cans but are expecting more this year by opening the "Food for Fines" program to all parking citations.

I hope you found this article worth stopping your Netflix session for as well as made you think and then smile.