As we close the chapter on 2020, many may feel tattered and beaten down as they look to 2021. We are all survivors of a whirlwind year where many of us felt a roller coaster of emotions including tragedy, adversity, uncertainty, and loss. Choosing to be optimistic is not perpetuating a Pollyanna or excessively cheerful attitude while ignoring negative emotions and experiences. It is facing the adversity, experiencing these emotions as they occur and believing for an opportunity to survive victoriously through it. Optimists see a difficult situation and choose to find a way, anyway. They persist to support the downtrodden, to overcome, to problem solve and ultimately to add value to others around them. To all reading this, you have exemplified these actions at some point in your life, if not everyday. You are an optimist. You are an everyday hero.