Happiness

What is happiness? What makes ME happy? These are some questions I have asked myself. When I was younger my mom would always tell me to smile, that I had a beautiful smile. I never believed her, I was bullied/teased constantly because of my looks and the way I acted. I knew I was weird, but hearing that from who you thought were friends is really painful. Since I was bullied constantly, I almost never had a smile on my face, even after elementary school I still did not smile. By then it had turned into a habit. Then one day, when I was at Girls Camp some of the counselors there told us to challenge ourselves, to have a goal. When I had left home earlier that week, my mom told me once again, that I should smile and that MY smile was beautiful. I thought of her when I made my goal that day at camp. My goal was to smile even if I didn't want to, to smile because I wanted to. Since that day I have tried to smile and now it is a habit to smile. What I realized later was that I shouldn't have let those kids get to me because I am who I am because I want to be. What makes ME happy? I don't really know, but what I do know is that a smile is contagious, so let go of grudges and things and SMILE. So what makes you happy? Stick to that and please just smile. :)

j.h.