Be honest, have you ever seen a headline like that? Maybe on your aunt’s weekly blog, but scroll through any major news website and try to find as many articles as you can that aren’tdiscussing some form of tragedy, corruption or scandal. It’s pretty hard to find articles that simply aren’t negative, let alone articles that are actually positive, and about 90 percent of those articles are talking about good things that people to in response to bad things. I even thought about discarding this article to replace it with one detailing the events that just occurred in Nice, France until I realized that I was being extremely hypocritical. The world has become so accustomed to violence and atrocity that we can’t even get through a happy article without passing it off as boring. The fact that you’ve made it this far in this article is impressive; most people probably scrolled past it once they saw the title.

A few days ago, as I was making my daily drive to work, I heard something on the radio. I’m not exactly sure what the advertisement was for, or if it even was an advertisement, but I remember tuning in to hear someone saying something like, “The only way you’re ever gonna become famous is if you kill someone famous.” Though this isn’t entirely true, it really made me think about the influences such negative media has on the world. If bombings, abductions, murders, executions, etc. didn’t all get broadcasted within an hour of their occurrence, would they happen as often? Certain organizations, even ISIS, feed off of the fear that is created and spread by the endless reports of their actions. I know terrorism functions on a level much higher than elementary school bullying, but what our teachers and parents always told us does hold some value-- people do bad things to get a rise out of others; if you don’t react to it, there’s no incentive for them to do it again. Now I know that Anderson Cooper isn’t going to read an article written by a 16-year-old girl and decide to ignore everything that ISIS does, but maybe if we gave a little more attention to the raw, good-hearted things people do, the world would be more inclined to perform good deeds.

So, I guess if you learn one thing from this article, I would want it to be to spread as much joy, happiness, love and positivity as you can. Sure, it would be easier to make a difference if you had millions of followers worldwide versus the 200-300 people you (kind of) know, but assuming Taylor Swift isn’t reading this article, I’m talking about something a little different here. Throughout our entire lives, we are constantly told that it only takes one person to change the world. When we hear this, we all nod and smile, but how many of us really believe it? I can give you the answer to that question: the ones who believe it are the ones who go out and do something to make the world a better place. I know we are all busy; I’m not expecting everyone to go out and start an organization that raises millions for underprivileged children (although that would be great). Start small. Next time you go for a walk, I challenge you to smile and say “Hi” to the first person you see. Who knows, maybe that person was having a bad day. Maybe your smile caused that person to hold their head up instead of staring at the ground. Maybe, while that person was looking up, he saw kids playing on a run-down playground. Maybe he saw just how happy those kids were with old, beaten-up equipment, and envisioned their faces when he surprised them with a brand new slide. Maybe he went out and bought that slide, and maybe he felt so good that he decided to buy the kids a whole new playground and start raising money to buy more across the city. Remember when I said that you don’t need to start a children’s charity? Well, with only one smile, you did just that. In a short 16 years of life, I’ve found that things have an odd way of working themselves out. Maybe that specific chain of events won’t occur, and odds are it won’t, but even if you make one person’s day a little bit better, you’ve done the same to the world. So, smile.