How to Smile John Lennon once said, “Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.” If his saying was true, most people must be two or three hundred years old according to their face-book pages. However, their life must be miserable since I hardly see anyone smile to a strange on a busy street anymore. Smile and be happy are not just a formal act of friendliness, but it’s also a way to experience life. Although no one can be happy all the time, you can practice convincing yourself to be happy, because after all life is too precious to waste it.
As a waiter, customers often asked me, “You smile all the time, how can you be happy every day?” I answer something along the lines like, “You know, life is good!” or “The smell from our food makes me smile.” If a coworker asks then I typically reply, “It’s a tip from years of experience. The longer you serve, the brighter your smile is.” This response makes my coworker thinks that although work is not like Disneyland, it is still possible to put up a smile and lift up the whole atmosphere. Servers are trained to smile all the time because a business owner knows that happiness is transmittable. A happy server makes happy customers, happy customers will come back and even bring a friend with them next time. As a server, I smile not only to fill up my tip jar, but also to lift the spirits of my coworkers. Hence, I can spread my happiness to everyone they interact with for the rest of the night.
There is more behind my smile than I typically reveal. It is more often than not, a genuine smile. I used to be a depressed teenager. I was extremely suicidal during a few of the years I was depressed. I was forced to spend a night in the hospital because I was threatening to kill myself. I used to smile at the thought of suicide because it was my way out. It was my way to finally be able to get rid of horrible emotions I had. After meeting with therapist and taking medication, they really changed my life. But the most important thing that saved my life is this realization that I had. Life is too short to care what other people are thinking about you. I am not lucky to have a nice parents, I was exposed to bullies. But I am not going to held back by other people’s opinions of me anymore. I do not want to look back on my one chance on life and regret everything in it. I used to want to be perfect. I wanted everyone to like me, so I was terrified to make a mistake. So, I would either stay quiet in groups, or avoid the situation all together. I learn to fake my smile and being confident. When people reacted positively to that, I slowly become truly happy and confident in myself. It’s hard, and I put myself in a lot of uncomfortable situations, but it all paid off. I have some really great friends, I have a girlfriend, and I got a job at the restaurant when the owner saw my attitude. Sometimes I still get depressed, I have bad days, but never like I did before.
There is really just one truth that we must learn and be constantly reminded of in order to maintain happiness. We are lucky to be alive. You could have died yesterday. You could die tomorrow. You could have never been born at all. You are lucky, unbelievably lucky, to be alive today. It is too easy to forget the measureless probability against our being. It is too easy to take tomorrow for granted. We take for granted that we wake up each morning, to breath clean air and drink clean water. We take for granted that we have eyes that reveal to us a beautiful world of color and ear to listen to wonderful sound. We need to change our perspectives. Human have inhabited Earth for about 200,000 years. And electricity was invented very recently, but people especially teenagers these day are “slaves” to their smart phones and Internet. We can get upset easily when our internet is too slow or our phones don’t have signal. People need to be reminded of their incredible luck, so that they will start to feel and act grateful.
If you are alive today, and not suffering terribly, you should be grateful. When you are irritated, angry, worried, ill, or miserable, try to remind yourself (over and over again if you have to) that you are fortunate to be alive and that you are thankful for today. Every day, every instant, every breath is a gift. It's not important where you think the gift of life comes from (God, your parents, a gigantic meatball), what is important is that you recognize the significance of the gift, and try to spread gratitude at all times in all directions. Let’s us smile, laugh, and make other people happy. Let’s cultivate this sense of gratitude. When you are down, you have to try these things because it will lift up your spirit. They say a rising tide lifts all boats. Happiness can extend like wildfire, and sometimes it just takes a single smile or laugh to spark the blaze. Louis Schwartzberg, an award winning photographer who capturing breathtaking image that celebrating life, mentioned: “You think this is just another day in your life. But you're wrong. This is the one day that you are given today... and the only appropriate response is gratefulness.” I wish that you notice the gifts, and blessings around you. Let them flow through you, everyone whom you interact will be blessed by you, by your smile. Let the thankfulness spread out into blessing all around you, and it will be a really good day.