Be like the flower.

Lately, there have been sad and heartbreaking events occurring what seems like left and right. The Boston Marathon bombing kick-started it this week, followed by the explosion of a fertilizer plant in West, Texas. The Virginia Tech campus remembered the lives lost in 2007. Tomorrow morning at 9:02 marks eighteen years since the Oklahoma City Alfred P. Murrah Building was bombed. 19 children under the age of six years old were lost, and I can't help but think about them all specifically because I was only three when the incident occurred. Saturday is the anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings. It's a lot, to say the least...

But the thing is, events like these have been happening for ages. We just happen to have social media, specifically Twitter, which allows news to travel across the world in seconds. Suddenly, the smallest incident is now broadcast everywhere. It's not to say that the events aren't bad, just that they're not exactly new. The location may change, the death tolls vary, but tragedy and inhumane acts are nothing new.

We have to learn to be like the flower in the middle of the sidewalk. While the world is weighing down, everything saying we should be depressed, angry, bitter, we reach upwards. What fun is it to play by the rules of the world, anyway? After all, I'd rather be the tiny bit of color in someone's day than give them any excuse to frown.

Don't give up. The bad guys don't win when the death toll hits a certain number. They win when we bow down. Keep your chin up.