People cope with fear in their own unique ways: some of us make jokes about the situation, some of us ignore it, and some of us (including me) can't stop thinking about it until it basically destroys us. I've learned that the news isn't a great source of information, as is any other social media platform. The stories are dramatized and made to be "scary." Fear makes people interested, and more likely to continue following the stories. However, scary things aren't great for a person like me, who always assumes the worst in everything. Recently, every cover story I've read on the news since 2020 has started has made my stomach churn and my mind runs wild. My imagination always gets the best of me, but it's hard to ignore it when the news is telling you horrifying facts.

Things varying from the US-Iran conflict to the newly fatal coronavirus have impacted my thoughts dramatically this month. I simply can't imagine a positive outlook on these situations, it's only hurtful. I've found that Twitter loves to create jokes about things that I find oddly serious, and I can't bring myself to join in the fun. Instead, everything I do I base off my fear of what's going to happen next. It's not a very fulfilling way to live life, but I can't change the way my brain processes things. And maybe, just maybe, some of these people are more fearful but choose to hide it. Anxiety has always been a struggle of mine and I've been working on changing that, but it's truly impossible when everything we view riles it back up.

Instead of basing our lives off fear, we should focus on basing it off of happiness. I can't change social media, the news or any other huge platforms so I'll just have to attempt to change my mindset. The world definitely isn't perfect, but it also isn't as horrible as it appears to be sometimes.