I have always been the smiley, cheery girl. Now that I'm In college, it seems that people seem to frown upon that. It's shocking when someone always asks me why I'm always happy and smiling but to be honest, I feel like just smiling makes my life so much better. I randomly smile at people when I'm walking to class–sometimes even that makes someone's day so much better. Although I'm always smiling, it doesn't mean I don't have bad days.The only way to make that day better is to think of all the positive things that have happened to me. I tend to ignore the negative things; thinking negatively only makes things worse.

One of the main reasons why I'm always happy is because I'm honest. As a child, I was taught to voice my opinions. I have never been the girl that goes along with things because someone says so–I have always questioned the reason behind it. During my first semester of college, I was introduced to so many new perspectives and lifestyles. I only have 19 years of experience with other people. And relatively speaking, I've only met a handful of people, but I have found that the happiest people are those that live to love others. Reminding myself of the positive things keeps all the negative thoughts away. Cleansing myself from toxic people has also taught me to appreciate people more. I like to see the good in people rather than just judging them by something someone else has said.

I'm always questioned why I'm always so happy. Even some of my professors have mentioned that I'm always smiling. I don't think it's a bad thing; I just tend to enjoy things more than other people. "Being happy" is not something that is an end goal-- It just naturally happens. "Being happy" is not something that is easy for very many people, and I agree, but sometimes you just need to work on the positive things. "Being happy" is a journey.

So my advice to someone who "wants to be as happy as me" is to just live. Take lots of pictures to remember moments, try to remember things that you don't think will matter, and spend a lot of time smiling at things that other people might not smile about. Do things that are greater than yourself, study and spend time learning about things that really interest you, and always remember that everyone has something that is weighing them down. View each person in the world as someone important and the happiness will come more naturally to you than you ever thought possible.