Often, our news channels, radio stations and social media pages are plagued by sad and troubling news. Especially of late.

Murder. Suicide. Shootings. Rape.

Words we can’t escape from in the media.

I keep seeing Brock Turner’s sickening mug shot on all of my news feeds. The first time I heard this story, I shook with anger, my heart swelled with sympathy for the girl he preyed on. Every time I am reminded of it, I still feel these things.

I keep seeing the horror and painful stories that are products of the Orlando night club shooting. While making dinner with my mom with the news on in the background, we listened to the reports of the horror. Simultaneously, I checked my phone only to see a tweet from author of the famed "Harry Potter" series, J.K. Rowling, about the shooting. It read, “Luis Vielma worked on the Harry Potter ride at Universal. He was 22 years old. I can’t stop crying. #Orlando.” I couldn’t stop crying either.

I do not have a universal solution to the evil that happens in the world in which we live. I don’t have a cure or weapon to banish all things bad. But I do, however, have a reminder.

Do not forget the good, the happiness, the light and the love that we still have in our lives.

Among the ever-nagging news of the bad, do not forget the good.

I didn’t want to write another article for your news feed that evoked anger, pain or sadness. I wanted to write one that I hope gives you hope. Hope that this world isn’t all bad. A reminder for you, that despite this world’s terrors, there’s good in it, too.

I stumbled upon a quote today that resonated with me in this time of overwhelming sadness, coincidentally by J.K. Rowling herself:

“Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

I needed that reminder. I thought about the things that make me happy. My three dogs running around the backyard like lunatics, joking with friends in a tiny dorm room, my favorite hockey team making me anxious, then elated, after scoring a goal, singing badly at the top of my lungs in the car with my best friend and laughing and crying over books I’ve stayed up too late to read.

I realized I had a pretty long list of things that made me damn happy.

No, I don’t have the power to fight off all the bad things that happen to me, to my family and friends, to the world, to you. But I do have things that continue to make me happy. I have the power to find happiness and good in my life. I have the power to be the good, to make myself and others happy. You have that power, too. I hope you don’t forget that.