Have you ever heard of “Where the Sidewalk Ends” or “A Light in the Attic” or even “Falling Up”? If not, you should pick up your phone and order these books, which are filled with adventurous poems and doodles by Shel Silverstein. I grew up with these poems, and they are one of the reasons I fell in love with reading and writing.

My mom would keep them next to her alarm clock in the slots of her bed’s headboard. I would sit on her bed and read the poems over and over until my mom would call out for me, wondering where I got lost. The doodles in the book compliment the simple yet sophisticated poems with great intensity and enthusiasm.

As a person who is double majoring in agricultural communications and leadership and journalism, I have to keep my mind occupied by fun, light reading or else my mind starts to wonder off. One of my favorite poems from “Where the Sidewalk Ends” is Hug O’ War.

This poem is what our world needs right now, more hug o’ war and less tug o’ war. A world where everyone hugs instead of tugs and where we all win. The world can be a cruel place to live but we have to remember to thrive and not just survive. This may be hard to comprehend some days, but what I like to say, “you can’t have a rainbow, without a little rain.”

People today need to learn to speak from the heart and not from hate. I do not always practice what I preach, but as of this week, I will try harder to hug my friends and family a little tighter and to live my best life.

I advise everyone to take 15 minutes out of their day and simply text or call your loved ones and tell them how much you love and appreciate them in your lives. They may be here one day and gone the next without a goodbye or an “I love you.”

Since being in college, I have come to find my own family here on campus that I get to live with and spend those 2 a.m. nights watching all three installments of Pitch Perfect and every live-action Disney movie. In the past week, we’ve watched the live-action Aladdin twice because it is that good! Some of our family nights get out of hand but who doesn’t love waking up next to their best friends and realizing the movie is over, the pop-up menu playing over and over again?

So, remember to be kind to one another, and don’t be afraid to be happy!