I can’t open up a newspaper and not read bad news. Most of the time it starts on the front page of the paper. I used to try to stay away from the bad news. I didn’t want to read it because I knew it would just bring me down. I associated bad news with sadness. But it’s impossible to evade in our era of social media and connectivity.

Scrolling through my Facebook feed or Twitter timeline, I’m bound to see a post about the next bad thing that’s happened in our world.

If I disconnect for a little while and maybe go outside for a walk, I’ll still hear at least one pair of people chatting away about how terrible the news is and how the world is probably coming to an end. No matter where I go, bad news is sure to emerge through some outlet, sooner or later.

I was working as my phone vibrated, and a Twitter notification popped up letting me know that many people were talking about Nepal. I clicked on it and it brought me to an endless list of tweets. Tweet after tweet the death toll rose.
At 6:39 a.m. 680 News Toronto tweeted, “#BREAKING: 101 dead as magnitude 7.8 quake hits Nepal.” By 10:01 a.m. they tweeted, “#UPDATE: At least 806 people across #Nepal confirmed dead, officials say.”

Everyone was tweeting about the disaster and the more I scrolled the grimmer the news got. The disaster was terrible and every outlet out there was providing coverage of the tragic event.

However, amidst all the doom there was some good news. News of all the support from other nations started pouring in.

On Sunday, headlines read out, “Germany, France sending rescue teams, emergency relief to quake-hit Nepal.” The article spoke about France and Germany’s input in the rescue efforts for Nepal as well as Pope Francis’ prayer offerings and words of encouragement.

I then searched “Nepal relief efforts” on Google and clicked on the first link. A roundup of relief efforts showed every country and organization’s contribution to helping the relief effort for the Nepal earthquake.

The list was long, with countries and organizations from all around the world donating people, time and money towards the effort. All the generous support that people were willing to contribute surprised me. I found it incredible how in a time of need that all these countries banded together to help a nation in need.

We were no longer separated by ethnicity or culture but we came together as one human race to provide relief for an injured nation. The good news gave me hope, it showed me that no matter how bad things get, the good in people will always find its way out. There will always be bad news, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be good news too.

(Ng, 17, is a first-year journalism student at Ryerson University in Toronto.)