I remember reading that we cannot choose our reality (although, I suppose that's debatable), but we can choose how we face it. We can allow our emotions to control us, our we can mold them to better fit our needs at the moment. This does not mean living an emotionless life or one filled with false smiles. Rather, we should feel sad when we see tragedy and angry when we see injustice; however, we should not let those emotions cloud our joy of life or hope for the future.
More importantly, we need to make choices that better our lives and bring about a greater future. We should not do so out of fear, but out of love. This means choosing to love even the imperfect elements in our imperfect world. This means looking for the beauty in each moment and contrasting it with the darkness around rather than allowing it to be smothered. The light shines brighter in comparison.
As we at SoHi are told every morning: "The choice is yours."