Depression is not a fad.

Depression is a real life-changing illness that people are diagnosed with. Depression causes people to get prescription medication. Depression requires people to see therapists and doctors.

People throw around the word “depression” too much. It’s like it’s the new coolest thing to be depressed. To be sad. To have a negative response to everything that happens. And that is not what depression is.

So unless you have depression, quit pretending. I can only imagine how people that have actually been diagnosed with depression feel when they hear perfectly healthy people pretending to hate life. Bragging about how they were “depressed” today. Tweeting about how they “hate everyone but like three people.”

It is not cool to hate. It is not cool to be sad.

You only get to live an earthly life once, so why on earth would you choose to waste any of it choosing unhappiness?

There is a quote from the Greek philosopher Epictetus, “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” You can’t choose what happens, but you can choose how to react.

Not caring about what is cool is cool. Being happy is cool. Just because those accounts you follow on Twitter are constantly choosing for their 140 characters to be negative, doesn’t mean you have to choose for your life to be. Unfollow those people right now. If you see that kind of negativity every day, it will start to affect how you live. You will start to think it’s normal to be unhappy. It’s not.

This world is broken. It is made up of sinners. It is not a perfect place, and it is not where we belong. But it was made by God, for us. And there is beauty, if you choose to see it.

You can look at this world as a terrible place. You can wake up every morning deciding to have a bad day. You can go home every night choosing to be alone just so you can tweet about how you hate everyone. But why? Why would you live that way? We were not made to live that kind of life.

“I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man.” – Ecclesiastes 3:12-13

Be joyful.

It’s okay to not want to be around people all of the time. It’s okay to not want to do something all of the time. It’s okay to be sad. We’re only human. But don’t stay in those places. You have the ability to get out of bed each morning and to choose happiness. You aren’t crippled by depression, and you don’t want to be. It’s not cool; it’s not fun.

You don’t have to wake up like a Disney princess. You don’t have to sing to the birds on the way to class. You don’t have to dance around, but you should. You should dance around. You should see God’s beautiful hands in everything you do today. In everywhere you go. Don’t curse the rain, dance in it.

You choose what mood to be in. You can look at the rain as a cool new hipster post for your Instagram with a quote about how depressing it is. “The rain is a symbol for the tears I feel inside. I hate the rain just like I hate my life.” If that is what kind of person you want to be and the kind of life you want to live, then do it. Be that person. But eventually, people will stop noticing. The attention will go away. No one wants to be around people that will bring them down.

So be an uplifting person. Even if the only person you are uplifting is yourself. Smile to people on the way to class. Don’t hate people, love them. It’s a choice, and sometimes a really difficult one (shoutout to all you movie talkers I choose to love anyway).

Choose happiness. Choose joy. Choose love. Choose Jesus.

He’s already chosen you.