I believe in joy and that it comes from within. Many people have different perceptions of joy. So what is joy really? Joy is an interesting thing, not to be confused with happiness. Happiness is a temporary feeling caused by something. Joy is found within, a feeling that can last a lifetime. So how can one find joy within themselves? It's all in the mindset. My mother always told me, “today can be your worst day, or today can be your best. The choice is yours.” That’s where joy comes from. Choosing to wake up everyday telling yourself that today will be a good day is Joy. You choose to have joy just like you choose to do anything else like what kind of clothes you want to wear or what kind of cereal you will eat in the morning. I once heard that a gift can cause joy just as rain can cause a flood. See that’s the thing, rain CAN cause a flood however, it's not inevitable. There will not be a flood every time it rains. Just like you won't have joy every time you receive any form of a gift. So stop waiting and depending on those gifts! If you want to have joy, you need to quit waiting on things and choose to have it for yourself.

About a year ago, my older brother left home to go to the marshal islands. He left to serve a full time church mission for two years. This means that we aren’t allowed to talk to him except on mother's day and christmas. This also means that I would have to go through the last two years of high school without my brother. This was extremely hard on me because I did everything with him. I told him everything, he gave me tons of advice, he helped me through the first two years of high school, but most of all, he was my motivation. When he left, he just disappeared from my life, someone who was a gigantic influence in my life, just gone. It felt like my joy was stolen from me when he left. I love my brother and I felt alone, no one was there to help me like he did. Was I sad? More than sad, however I realized that I needed to become less dependant and more independant. I had to find the joy within myself rather than having my brother deliver it to me on a silver platter every day. Eventually I was able to overcome the depression and find my own joy. How did I do it? No clue, I just had to dig deep and choose to be joyful despite the sad situation that I was in.

People need to stop depending on things to be joyful. In the year 2016 the top five of the most joyful states were one: Utah, two: Minnesota, three: North Dakota, Four: Hawaii, and five: Colorado. Wouldn't you think that Hawaii would be number one just because of how beautiful it is there? Now the people from Minnesota and North Dakota must have figured it out because they are filled with joy despite the the lack of paradise within those states. Kevyn Aucoin has a quote that perfectly sums up joy. He said, “Today I choose life. Every morning when I wake up I can choose joy, happiness, negativity, pain… To feel the freedom that comes from being able to continue to make mistakes and choices- today I choose to feel life, not to deny my humanity but to embrace it.” Every morning, I wake up and tell myself that I am choosing to be joyful today. Then when the hard things throughout the day come my way, I can not in anyway be negatively impacted because I already chose joy. This is the key to life and all of the successes that comes with it. Joy is found within. This I believe.