Life is difficult sometimes. Sometimes it's hard to wake up and be appreciative of what you have. It's hard to see the silver lining to everything. It's hard to see your entire existence as a whole and point out quite where your significance lies, where your importance is, your worth. It gets hard. Sometimes it's easy to just say you'd rather not exist at all or that you'd like to take it all away or start over completely. But sometimes, life is beautiful. Sometimes life is worth it. It's worth all the hard times, the bad times. Sometimes it's worth getting out of bed because sometime good things can and do happen.

It's always the little things. A smile exchanged on your way to class. The feeling of putting on pajamas after a long day. Ice cream on a hot sunny day. Seeing someone you love. Succeeding in something you spent a lot of time on. Watching the sun rise and set. Feeling a summer breeze on your skin. Food. Sleep. Listening to a child laugh. Watching your best friend smile. Good books and movies and coffee and tea. The very existence of chocolate and candy. These are all little things that make every single day worth waking up for.

Then there are the big things. The things you take for granted without even realizing it. The things that you have that millions of people don't. Clean water. Electricity. Clothes! Food. The internet. An education. Freedom to speak. Freedom of expression. Self autonomy. These are all big things that seem so little. They're the things that we don't realize that we are fortunate to have until we have to live without them.

So in this moment, before you go back to scrolling through whatever social media and avoiding your responsibilities, I'd like you to do something for me.

Close your eyes. Well, not yet, but once you've read this, do it. Close your eyes. I want you to picture a concept in your head. I want you to picture happiness. What do you see? Is it a person? A place? A concept? An activity? What are the things that make you happy? What are the things that make you feel valued? Write these things down on a piece of paper or in a list. Keep it in your pocket. You don't have to be living your dream with your dream house and dream job and dream car. Life isn't a game of MASH. However, you can remember these things, and carry them with you, just to give you the motivation to carry on when difficult times come along. You will be prepared to handle them with your handy list of little things, because life really is worth it.