Ever had one of those days in which absolutely everything that could go wrong does?

You hit snooze one too many times and get up with only minutes left to sprint to your 8 a.m. class.

You trip up the stairs going into Beardshear in front of the entire student body. The computer just refuses to print your paper that was due last week. Your horoscope even warns you that today is only a three, but it feels like a negative number.

I was having just one of those days a couple of weeks ago. I was walking across campus feeling all sorry for myself when someone passed me on the sidewalk and wished me a good morning — someone that I didn’t even know. It made me smile and realize that things could be a whole lot worse.

On campus right now, it seems as if everything is negative. (Don’t worry, you don’t have to read my personal thoughts on the whole Catt Hall issue.) All I hear are comments about what is wrong with everything. ISU isn’t perfect, but nothing ever is.

Have you ever stopped to consider what brought you here in the first place? The number of colleges and universities is endless, but you chose to enroll at Iowa State. Was it the location, the academic reputation or the people you knew here?

The reasons vary widely from student to student, but as a whole it seems as if we are overlooking the positive aspects of our attendance.

I came here not only because I loved the campus, but because I wanted to be able to say I received my diploma from ISU.

Sure, there have been times when I doubted my decision, but overall I am satisfied with my choice.

A wide variety of things on this campus are what make my days here enjoyable, but I often overlook them.

Have you ever stopped to listen to the music played at the campanile around noon or sat on the shore of Lake Laverne on a sunny autumn afternoon?

Have you ever walked across the moonlit campus and the only sounds are of fallen leaves crunching beneath your feet? Have you ever studied or just relaxed with a good book in the Memorial Union, or read your hometown paper at the library?

These are only a few of the things that have made my time here so special.

I also love that people have gone out of their way to hold doors open for me when my hands were full or that every time I’ve struggled with a concept in a class, my professors always have been willing to meet with me.

These might seem like insignificant details, but the small joys in life can make all of the difference.

This is not the only campus which tends to focus on the negative; it is a disease from which our society as a whole is suffering. Just turn on the evening news.

A majority of the stories focus on what is wrong with our world, the latest killing spree or the rising inflation. If each of us would take a minute to focus on what was going right in our lives, we all would be much happier.

This summer, I caught part of an Oprah episode in which she suggested making a list of five good things that happened every day. I tried that this summer.

There were days when finding five was a stretch, but I was amazed at what made me happy. I didn’t have to win a million dollars or buy the Jeep Grand Cherokee limited edition of my dreams.

I was thankful for things like sharing a laugh with a friend, having a good night at work or finding something that I had thought was lost forever.

My list is far from complete and I have slacked off since classes started, but recently I came across a book entitled “14,000 Things to Be Happy About: The Happy Book” by Barbara Ann Kipfer.

The book is just a running list of things that make her happy. It isn’t a book that you can just sit down and read cover to cover, but on those days that you want to crawl back in bed and pull the blanket over your head, it doesn’t hurt to flip through it.

You can write me off as the eternal optimist or a columnist just searching for something to fill up space if you want, but just take a minute to think about all the things that made you smile today. I would be willing to bet that you will discover it can’t be all bad.

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Laura Luiken is a sophomore in English from Webster City.