I believe that things happen for a reason. That even though bad things do happen, good will come out of it. When I was seven or eight, my grandmother died of cancer. She was 52. It was a big shock to my family and was a hard time for all of us, especially my grandfather. Why do the good die young? Why do bad things happen to good people? These questions couldn’t have a valid answer. We could only try to justify them to comfort ourselves. Now it’s been ten years and my grandfather has remarried and my family realizes that it is so sad to have lost someone that we all love so much but with this terrible loss came someone who will always be a very important part of my life, my step grandmother. Now I have had three grandmothers in my life and I know that I am so lucky to have been in the presence of all of them. Mostly what I’m trying to get across is that when something doesn’t go my way, I try to look back on a time when what appeared to be a terrible thing came out to have some not terrible aspects. I recently just got denied from my number one school and I was really devastated, but I knew that it was meant to be. That’s what I kept telling myself anyways. I did everything I could, I know that I worked hard at school and everything else I do. My mom told me that sometimes we don’t even know what’s best for ourselves. So even though I thought I knew what I wanted, I know that wherever I do end up going or doing with the next part of my life it was meant to be. I don’t think of this in a religious way either. I just think if it as, “the energy you put into the world you get back out” and making sure to focus on the positive in life too. If we look back into our lives and inspect every little thing that has gone wrong, something good had to have come out of it too. Even though that bad thing happened, and something good did come out of that, it doesn’t mean that they will balance out. It might just be one thing in a hard time that you can focus on and it will pull you through. No matter how small of insignificant it is it’s comforting to know that not everything is all bad. This belief I share with my parents and I talk a lot about it with my mom. Sometimes life is not fair. I know that it’s not fair at all and people get taken too soon and get sick or lose their job and so on and it’s not fair. There is a silver lining to life and to be a happy person it’s important to acknowledge that it exists and try to focus energy on that instead of the negative in life. I've had trouble finding the silver lining many times as I had a tendency in my early teenage years to be a negative person. Now I work on trying to get a perspective on problems before I give up or breakdown and even if I do this belief that I keep with me will always bring me back to a good mindset. This is why I believe in silver linings and the importance of acknowledging them. Biography: Lucy Klempen is a senior at Good Hope Country Day School and is 17 years old. She values her family and loves to spend time with them.