Life is not perfect, you beautiful woman. You are figuring out your life, one day at a time. You have a man that loves you. You have friends that have your back. You have a Savior that died to take it all away. All the stress. All the complications. All the anger. All the frustrations.

You do not have to walk through it alone.

I don’t know what is going on right now. I am sitting across the lunch table from you. You just said, “Anna McCraw, thank you for being a happy person and not expecting me to fix all your problems.” And what do I have to say back to that? Nothing. I have no words to explain my happiness and the unhappiness of others. But I do know one thing: You cannot make everyone happy and the happiness of others should not affect your own.

You of all people should know that God alone is the source of happiness. Not your boyfriend. Not your friends. Not your parents. Not your sister. Not your grades. Not Erksine. Not how well you can write a paper or interpret a poem. No one on this earth can tell you your worth. So don’t let them.

You are not defined by how many people you solve problems for in this world. You are not God. That is not your job. You are not defined by the solutions you come up with for your parents' mistakes, for the Citadel's insane lunch menu, for friends who don’t know limits. You are not responsible for their mistakes. And as much as you may want to, you cannot make it better for them all.

“Anna, why can’t people be happy?”

My answer to this question is to not worry about other people’s happiness and focus on your own. Lean on God and trust that He will always pick you up and carry you.

So the next time you ask me, “Why did I wake up this morning? Why did I turn my phone on this morning?” I will tell you that you woke up because God is not finished with you yet. You are here because he is using you and he is perfecting you. But if you want, turn off your phone. We don’t need them anyways. Turn it off and stop worrying about sending a smiley face not to offend people.

The next time you say, “I feel like my goldfish are like little people swimming around in soup of despair,” let them swim. Because it’s their lives. But remember that their happiness should not reflect on your own. So eat those goldfish, and don’t let their unhappiness and despair soak up in your tummy and cause you to be unhappy as well.

So be happy. Don’t worry about other people’s happiness. Eat your goldfish and peanut butter and soak it all up. Refuse to allow the negativity of others to dwell in your heart.

And if it makes you happy to take the spoon from the goldfish bowl, you take that spoon.