Endless assignments, midterms, lack of sleep, busy jobs, no car, cold weather, getting sick and having to survive on your own without your mom looking after you and making you soup, blisters from walking, eating pasta or rice daily, roommate drama, relationship drama, having no money, having to share your room, clothes, food, shower, and privacy with another, worrying about your future, worrying about your present, wondering whether you have chosen the right major, forgetting work at home and realizing you can't just text mom and ask her to bring it to you, sleeping in because you forgot to set an alarm and you're the only one responsible for you, looking in the fridge and seeing you have no food, trying to balance 101 things and knowing you're failing miserably, staining your clothes and not knowing what the heck to do...
How does that sound like "the best time of your life?" It doesn't. But this makes it the best:
Staying up late because you're on a double date, losing sleep because you and your roommate think the best time to talk is 2am and 3 hours is just not enough time to laugh about all the random things, having your first real job and feeling the satisfaction of making money, having roommates bring you surprise goodies because they know you are sick and want you to feel happy, the Relief Society President knocks on your door and hands you a can of soup to help you get over your cold, walking to school every morning with increased layers of clothing because its cold but loving the mornings because its quality time with your boyfriend, realizing that while your future is uncertain, it is yours and you have the power right now to be anything you want to be, calling mom and hearing how happy she is just to talk to you for five minutes and noticing how much stronger your relationship is, going out to eat because you forgot to go shopping...again, eating rice for dinner and laughing at your inability to be a functioning adult because you forgot to go shopping...again, staining your clothes but having a friend there to teach you how and sort out the problem...
The list goes on. Daily I am blessed to consider how my life is made wonderful by the small things. Here are some things that recently made me smile:
Jason gave me a ride home from school so I didn't have to walk, Matt and I saw the most beautiful landscape and captured it in a photograph, I walked past Jess' room and heard her and some friends laughing madly, I watched Matt curl up on the couch and try relax which is hard since his mind is forever going at 100mph, I watched another roommate have a really awkward Skype call for which we all enjoyed laughing at her, I laughed in the place of crying at work today when my colleague and I had absolutely NO CLUE what the heck was going on...it was a nice moment of shared despair that turned into a good memory, a guy in my philosophy class told me that my presentation was good, I had 2 kind people offer to give me their planners since I had lost mine, I watched a movie when I probably should have been doing homework but I felt like I deserved it so there, I watched a boy drop his fiancée off at her class and as she walked away he called after her: "Hey! You look absolutely beautiful today!"...yes those kinds of people do exist, hearing a guy describe how he wants to propose to his girlfriend, watching a disabled student be helped out by an able-bodied student, knowing my sister is performing on stage and being amazing at it because that's what she likes to do, FaceTiming my mom and dad and watching them be lunatics on camera, receiving a cute and unexpected gift in the mail, meeting some old friends for a catch up, watching the leaves change color...
The point is, when life seems awful, it never really is...or actually it is, but it is just as full, if not so much more full, of wonderful moments which, if appreciated, make life beautiful.
It's the simple things.
Try notice someone smile because of something you did, try notice when you smile because of the actions of someone else. Smile all the time, because there are a million things to smile about.
Give a little, take a little. Serve and be served. Love and be loved.
It's worked so far for me.
Love the pictures and the sentiments.
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