In my opinion, happiness is not joy. Being happy is great and all but I'd rather be joyful. Now, I know you're probably thinking "this girl is crazy. They're the same thing." Well, not to me they're not. Happiness is an expression that's only seen on the surface. Someone could be going through hell or high-water on the inside but on the outside, they look happy. Joyfulness...now that's a whole different story. Joyfulness comes from deep deep down in the depths of your soul. When you've got the ability to turn "one step forward, two steps back" into a cha-cha, then you're on your way. I know it's hard to think about being joyful when all of this craziness is going on in the world (war, government shutdown, the end of Breaking Bad) but don't fret! I've included a recipe for joy to keep a little pep in your step today :)

- Heapings of love
- A handful of supportive people
- A teaspoon of courage
- An utterly enormous amount of faith
- Tons of smiles
- A hint of forgiveness

**Now, before I go any further, let's discuss faith. If you don't believe in a higher being, then I don't mean to offend you. It's just something I believe rather strongly in so I've included it in my recipe. You're faith doesn't have to be in a higher being at all! If you have faith that the sun will rise and set each morning, then hold onto that with every fiber of your being. Just faith in something is necessary for this recipe to work.**

1. As soon as you wake up in the morning, close your eyes, focus on whatever your faith is directed towards, and let it fill you up. If it's faith in God, pray. If it's faith in yourself, have a quick internal pep talk. But grab a strong hold of that faith before you can move on to the other steps.

2. Smile. (I don't care who or what you smile at, but just smile.)

3. Okay now this part can get tricky - continue smiling as you think about someone whose hurt your extremely bad. KEEP SMILING. This is where we're gonna throw in the forgiveness.

4. Try really really hard to forgive that person for one of the mean things they've done to you. Not all or half. Just one.

(Are you still smiling? You should be!)
 5. Alright this is probably the hardest part so get yourself prepared - LOVE. Hell, I don't care if your love of shoes outweighs the love of your job. Just love something. Now, remember how I told you to get a handful of supportive people? They are who I want you to focus your love on..

6. This is the last step! Yay! When you leave for work or class or wherever you're going, keep smiling and keep loving.

That's it. That's all you need to do to be joyful! But this isn't a one-time thing. You have to follow this recipe everyday for there to actually be a change.

Okay so let's get something straight from the get-go: I attempt to cook. I don't ever just wake up and say "oh I'd like to make a five course meal, today!" No...that never happens. What I do end up saying to myself is "hey, instead of dying of starvation today, let's find some sustenance." More often than not, I heat up some Ramen noodles and a cup of water. (Yeah, it's pretty gourmet cuisine.) If you're an undergraduate student, you know what I mean. For those of you who don't understand, let me explain: we are poor. It may seem like we have money because we go to this gorgeous school and somehow manage to have pretty cool laptops, but it's ALL a lie. We don't cook because we don't have groceries. We don't have groceries because we don't have money. We don't have money because we pay thousands of dollars for tuition, take out numerous loans, and spend it on frivolous things like textbooks and lab manuals.