Sometimes it feels like all you can do is wallow in your self-pity, and that’s okay. But you have to pick yourself up and brush yourself off.

If it feels like the only luck you have is bad luck, then this is for you. Some days it seems like nothing can go right, and everything that can go wrong goes wrong. Just when you think things can’t get any worse, they do. On the days that life is laughing in your face, you just have to laugh right back. I know it seems like other people have everything. It’s like they just get the world handed to them. But your life isn’t about what goes on in other people’s lives. It is about you and what you make of it. Your life is about the actions that you take and the reactions you make.

Whether it be good luck, or bad luck, it is about what you make of it. Whenever you think to yourself that bad things only happen to you, you’re wrong. Whenever you think to yourself that the world and everything in it is against you and out to get you, think again. Bad things always happen, and they happen to everybody, not just you and you alone. Right now you may be having a really bad time, or just some really bad luck. And you may not be able to tell or even notice, but there is someone, somewhere, at this very moment, having an even worse day than you. And that isn’t to say that your day isn’t bad. You have every right to be upset and your problems do matter. Your day might be really bad, but there is definitely someone, somewhere, having a worse time than you. Someone losing a child, a spouse or a parent. Someone becoming homeless or starving.

When you are loving and caring and polite to others and nothing is returned back, or worse, when something bad happens to you, it is okay. The world is not trying to single you out and make your life difficult. It is your choice to act this way to others, and if you feel that it is a good choice, then stick with it. Because someone, somewhere, is having a bad day, and when you’re good choices affect one of those people, they will appreciate it. And that will make everything worth it. Even if you don’t know it, that person knows it.

Yes the world is a scary place, and scary things happen every day. And yes these scary bad things happen to good people.

Because if bad things happened to bad people then that just wouldn’t make sense. This is just how life works. Bad things happen to good people, and good things happen to bad people. This is life, and life is not fair. But you can’t just give up, you have to keep doing what you are doing, and you have to be better at it every day. Take a step back-- look at everything from a different perspective. Stand tall, be proud. Chin up, buttercup.