It's easy to be cranky in a world where we're lazy, and expect everything to go out way- but something I've learned in the last couple years is that attitude truly is everything. If you make good out of a bad situation, it could turn around in a matter of minutes.

Bad things happen to good people. While this very well may be true, if you wallow in your own sadness, the situation will never get better. In acting class, we talk about how it's important to "stay in the shit"- and embrace the crappy things that are happening around you because that's when you're most true to yourself. Let's take that with a grain of salt. You want to use your bad days to motivate you and inspire you to do better next time, but don't lose sight of your emotions. If you fake a smile, you're not helping yourself or anyone around you.

This time 2 years ago- my mom was going through Breast Cancer Treatments. When we had first found out the news, I was absolutely devastated. I found myself thinking the worst, thinking we would never come back from this as a family. But every day, she woke up with a smile on her face and faced the battle she had to. As corny as this sounds, I think her attitude really saved her life. Now, I try to live every day with a little voice in the back of my head reminding me all the good I have in my life. Not just the material items, but the memories I'm making on a daily basis. Counting my blessings in everything I do and making sure I appreciate myself and everyone around me a little more each day.

About at the same time as my mom's treatments, my dad was unemployed. Mind you, this was right when I was going into my first year of college (which isn't a walk in the park for our wallets). For a while, we were in a panic because we knew it seemed as though our world was crashing around us, but then something changed in the Lewis household. Our attitudes. My mom's positivity had started to radiate. Our worries never went away, but we just learned out to deal with them. After a while, my dad was able to go on more interviews and get more short-time jobs. From the help of everyone around us and from his hard work, he got a new job in the city doing what he's always loved doing. Now, he inspires me every day to make sure I'm doing what I love, and if I'm not, to try at it from all different angles. There isn't just one way to live your life, there are so many paths we can take on this journey we call life. There is no right or wrong path, and if we get steered off course once in a while, it's not the end of the world. Just have faith. As the Brits say "Keep Calm and Carry On". As cliche as we make this- it couldn't be truer. There will always be rough patches in life, it's absolutely inevitable, but that doesn't mean you should give up. You need to push through. And when you do, you'll inspire others to do the same.

You'll never have enough money, you'll never have the perfect job, you won't always have the best days, you'll always want something/someone you can't have, but if you sit around and cry about it- it's going to be a hard funk to get out of. Give yourself credit for the things you are capable of doing and the things you have done. Take a chance. Sometimes our most important accomplishments come to be because of our biggest failures. If anyone tells you their entire life has been everything they always wanted it to be, they're lying to you. But, if you take those bad days and make them good ones, you get the most out of every single day in this short life that we're provided with.