The reasons why I smile? I smile because I know I will never let those thoughts take over. I smile because I know that I am beautiful and complete without those thoughts. A question one might ask is what are those thoughts? The whispers that echo in your head, almost like imagining what the whispers at a family reunion are saying when you walk in, the feeling you get when you realize your pants have gotten a bit tighter, what the judgmental glances are saying when you walk into a new church. My smile has brought me above and beyond what my past had stooped me to. My past is a struggle I continue to fight but she helps heal the wounds.

1. Best Friends

Best friends are sometimes the only thing that gets us through the day. We laugh, we joke, and we have a good time picking on each other (out of love). Sometimes it is hard to get along with them, but we push past these hard times. Whether you argue with your friend or have disagreements, that one inside joke can bring you both to tears. Sometimes the laugh of your best friend is enough to make you smile and burst out laughing, even if the joke wasn't very funny.

2. Look around you

The girl in the corner that is drinking her coffee and laughing with her friends? She lost her Mom last week. Sometimes, we tend to feel like we are alone but we really we tend to have a mindset of perfection when in reality, the world itself is imperfection. Life is honestly crazy and as soon as we feel like we are getting together, everything "falls apart". But isn't that beauty of it all? Being a hot mess is what I like to view as imperfectly perfect.

3. The little things

What is one moment to compare to 365 days a year, let alone a lifetime? I feel like sometimes we let the little, bad moments throughout the day ruin us but never harp on the good days or the good moments.

4. What do we have to lose?

Honestly, there will always be a test or another annoying person to ruin your day but there will never be another you. When I die, I do not want to be known as the girl who did as she had to. I would want to be known as the girl that lived passionately and did what she could.

Try to keep these four things in mind throughout the day when your head is racing and you cannot think of anything but the negative. Sometime's it is a lot harder to think of the negatives rather than the positives.