I have always had the mentality that if I wasn't happy in a situation, I was going to change it or leave it. Some make fun of me for this -- friends and family even -- but it's my life, so I am going to choose to do with it what I want and think is best for me.

I can't tell you how many friends I have left behind, colleges I have transferred from, jobs I have left, because I felt I was losing myself and my happiness.

I remember a little over a year ago, I even got made fun of for it. Someone said, "You don't quit things because they 'don't make you happy'. You quit them because you aren't good at them and you don't try. But nice try, have fun never graduating and never making anything of yourself."

I did a YOLO question sticker on Snapchat, which is anonymous, and asked people to tell me or ask me anything. I've done it multiple times, and I normally enjoy seeing what people say. But not this time.

It kind of made me laugh a little bit. This person didn't even have the nerve to come forward and tell me who they were, but yet they decided they knew enough about my life to make that assumption. As if they knew that when I left nursing school the first time, my dad had just died. As if they knew that when I left nursing school the second time, I was halfway through and had been on the Dean's List twice. Because that just screams that I'm not good at what I do and that I don't try.

I just left a job after spending almost a year and a half there because I wasn't happy and I wanted something better for myself. I was good at my job and tried every day. As if that person knew that. As if they knew how hard it was to say goodbye to my coworkers, who had become my family.

I'll get off my soapbox, but my point remains the same. Life is too short to waste it on unhappiness.

To waste it on an abusive relationship, on a crappy job, on an education you aren't happy with. To waste it on pointless arguments, misery, and not being able to wake up every day and like the life you're living.

My dad's passing has made it even more clear for me that life is way too short to have any regrets.

I sit here, a double major at Miami University, fresh out of my first day at a new job, sitting in the sunshine outside writing this article, loving my life, and it's because I never took unhappiness for an answer.

We need to take control of our lives and do whatever it takes to obtain happiness. Even if that means leaving a job we have been at and starting over. If it means quitting your education to go pursue a passion you aren't even sure will pay well but makes you happy. If it means taking medication for your mental illness or chopping all your hair off and dying it bright pink.

The point is, don't let anything stop you from true happiness. The only person who can truly stop you is you.