As college students constantly harassed and pressured by literally everything around us (Drink that! Finish that! What are you wearing?), it is easy to forget how to do one simple thing: smile. I mean, where is the joy in being late to class only to hear about a paper due the next that you havent even started. You run home in the rain to catch a nap but then your significant other breaks up with you?! What is life DOING to us!?
As an out of state student I experience these feelings almost on a daily basis. I get out of bed wishing I could walk down to my mom's delicious breakfast and just spend the day doing whatever I want; instead, it's meetings.classes.obligations.jobs. I get so lost in the motion of just trying to keep up with everyone that I literally will lock myself in the room and just cry as I emo out about my life. I know this sounds like a hopelessly depressing post, but thankfully I discovered the fail-not cure to such a struggle: smile. laugh.
I know that most times it is the last thing you want to do...I mean, how can you possibly find humor in such a miserable state? But it doesn't have to be like that. If I know that I am in one of those moods where simply being alone in a room can bring out the tears as I reflect on the day, I find a friend or group of friends nearby, and even if I dont feel like being social, force myself to talk to them. As I hear their exciting (or even mundane) stories, it makes me forget about how miserable I feel. Then, the moment will come without me even realizing it when a laugh will escape my lips, or a smile lights across my face, and literally, in an instant, all my pain and struggling is forgotten. I dont know the biological explanation for it (although it is proven that laughing is healthy), but just finding something to smile/laugh about, no matter how small or insignificant the laugh is about, will wipe away an entire miserable day/week/month. Thus my advice to each and every one of you readers is this: next time you feel like you lost, that you can't go on without crying, find that one minute, seemingly insignificant instant in that day that was funny, and let loose. Laugh. Talk to a friend, be goofy, and shake off the bad energy. A negative mood is all a frame of mind; all we have to do is find that one thing that will let us shift our focus to the many small, wonderful, funny, delightful, beautiful, sexy, warm aspects of our lives. Don't cry tears of sadness but tears of joy.