Marcus Aurelius once said, “Dwell on the beauty in life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”

In our world today, it is incredibly easy to lose sight of what is good because it seems much more commonplace to fixate on what is going wrong in the world—which is a lot.

Whether we see it on television, Twitter, or hear it from someone on the street, bad news surrounds us. It seems as though the more our world advances, the more violence that occurs, and more school shootings, riots, and bullying occurs all around the world.

But fear not, because even in a world of chaos, it is still okay to be happy and I would like to share with you some encouragement to do so.

Lately, I have been working on myself and making sure that my happiness is a priority, and that is something I would love to pass along to you.

Yes, it is ridiculous, and I cannot tell you the number of times I have been called naive or ignorant, but why add to the sadness and misery that is going on around me? It makes no sense.

Happiness is a personal choice and not everyone will choose it. However, I believe a lot of people think it is not okay to be happy because there are so many others out there who are not, who are much less fortunate than I. So why not spread your positivity?

Last winter, I attended a Toby Mac concert with my mom. For those of you who do not know, Mac is an artist who puts a modern spin on gospel and spiritual music. During his concert, he said something that I will never forget: "With each encounter we make throughout the day, we either give life, or we drain life. There is no such thing as a neutral encounter."

I was blown away and it took me a while to figure out exactly what this meant. How could this be so? Not everyone I talk to cares that much about me, or whether or not I smile, or say "hi," or what have you.

Then I really got to thinking. I remembered all of the times someone had not held the door open for me, or those people who simply glare at me when I smile at them while walking to class. I remembered how unsettling those things were to me. But then, I remembered the times that someone has complimented me, or has smiled back at me, or even asked how I was doing.

Each of those little things made me smile, and almost set the pace for my entire day. It is so very important to keep all of this in mind, especially in a world where it seems so very impossible to be happy.

Learn to celebrate the little things—keep track of each good and positive thing, no matter how small, throughout the day and focus on those.

Of course there will be days where all you want to do is lay in bed and be sad; that is okay because it is human nature. But trust me, when you start to learn to pay better attention to the beauty and positivity that surrounds you, there will be plenty more good days than bad.