Tag: happiness

I’m Sure As Hell The Happiest I’ve Ever Been

maydaygaskarthLeave a comment

I never really knew what true happiness was until July 7th, 2017. Sure, I’ve been happy before. I smile, I laugh, but never have I experienced a day where pure happiness radiated through the whole room and it was so contagious that it made me happy also. I’ve never genuinely and truly experienced happiness without something in the back of my head keeping me upset, but July 7th was a different night. Ironically, the room full of these positive souls are also people dealing with their own battles every day, including myself. I may not know what those battles were for them, but everyone left those worries outside the room and didn’t let it affect them for the rest of the night.

It’s not what made this the happiest night of my life, but who made it the best night I’ve ever experienced. I got to meet my favorite band, All Time Low, for the first time ever. I remember when I got the email saying that I was selected to be one of the thirty people to meet them for free. My hands were shaking with excitement. I can’t even remember if I started crying, but if I did they were probably tears of happiness.

I obsess over lots of things. Pretty much the only things I ever talk about are every single TV show on the planet, how Jack Dawson should’ve lived, and All Time Low. So, when I had the opportunity to stand center barricade in front of my favorite band belting out the lyrics to my favorite songs while surrounded by the most amazing people, I was truly content.

The image of meeting All Time Low is still clear in my head. Taking my first steps towards them, Jack Barakat, my favorite band member, was already walking towards me with arms wide open before pulling me into a bear hug. Every single one of them did this. They didn’t have to, but they do anyways.

Photo Credit: Live Nation

They meet hundreds of fans every day, yet when I went into that room it seemed like I was the only one they knew, and obviously that’s not true, but they had this crazy ability to make every single fan feel like they were singing to them, talking to them, or looking at them.

I’ve never seen a band care so much for their fans. At my concert, they stopped their set twice because they were worried about these girls who passed out in the middle of the crowd. Afterwards, they made everyone clear their path to get these girls out safely. They invite their fans up on stage to dance and sing with them at every concert. They created a whole music video Skyping their fans and thanking them for being the reason for their success, though the fans were really thanking the band for caring enough to have a personal conversation with their fans. The song itself , Missing You, was dedicated to every single one of their fans begging for them to stay alive, and it’s still one of the most emotional songs I know to this day.

It’s not just the band, but it’s the community the band has made that is so amazing. I’m not outgoing, at all, but while I was standing in line to meet them, I ended up talking randomly to these two girls. I knew nothing about them, but by the end of the night we were talking about our pasts and our passions after already standing next to each other at the barricade singing at the top of our lungs to Therapy even though everyone was crying on each other at that point. I still keep in contact with them, and I still talk to the girls I met all the way in 2015 through twitter talking about this band.

To this day, July 7th was still the best day of my life.

To this day, since 5th grade, All Time Low has always been my favorite band.

To this day, from watching their cringe worthy yet hilarious interviews and videos from 2005 to their extremely inappropriate jokes they make on concert, they have never failed to make me laugh my ass off.

To this day, I still listen to their songs whenever I have a bad day, and they still manage to make me smile like I did that night.

Photo Credit: The Aquarian Weekly

The Deadly Truth About Love

maydaygaskarthLeave a comment

I’m not necessarily a person who trusts easily. It takes me a long time to open up to someone, to let them know what goes through my mind or what makes me tick, what makes me happy or sad. But somehow, I manage to put all my trust into a creature who could kill me if they truly wanted to.

I don’t consider myself a daredevil. In fact, I have irrational fears of even the smallest spiders in my room. People question how I manage to be brave enough to get on a 1500 pound horse and ride around an arena galloping over jumps with no anxiety, and honestly I don’t know. The sport is dangerous. Just last year, my roommate had broken her back falling off a horse, and I’ve been close to falling onto a boulder when my horse bucked me out of the dressage arena.

Even then, this didn’t phase me at all. I brushed off the dust, laughed it off, and got back on with no problems. My trust with my horse was still secure even though my luck could’ve been way worse.

Photo Credit: Pinterest

For the past year, since my back surgery, I was constantly warned that one wrong fall would potentially break my back and leave me hospitalized for weeks with the chance I wouldn’t be allowed to ride for a long time.

But I still took the risk, and it’s because my love for the sport was stronger than my fear of pain and injury. Every day I still ride, and every day the fact that horseback riding is considered one of the most dangerous sports in the world barely passes through my mind as I work with my horse.

But that’s the thing about anything everyone loves. Everything is deadly to us in some way and form, and that same exact thing gives some of us life. So horseback riding may be dangerous, but I feel like others can agree with me when I say a rider’s love for their horse is worth devoting their time and trust into these animals despite the threat that floats through the air every day someone steps into an arena.

A World of Adventure

maydaygaskarthLeave a comment

Sometimes I contemplate whether or not after high school I should take a gap year. There’s so many things to learn by simply traveling and exploring, and I wonder if there’s too many possible adventures to simply get done in a life time. I can’t imagine them all as I’m stuck in school doing essays, endless math problems, and projects, but I hope.

As much as I picture myself being an ambitious law student in the heart of New York City, I begin to stalk the traveler pages of Instagram who share their passions to the world, and wonder how life like that would be. To take life one step at a time without a care in the world about the future. To travel freely, explore different cultures, or learn for mere enjoyment rather than cramming in information for a final exam.

I’ve had the privilege to travel before. From galloping horses through Ireland’s terrain to swimming with stingrays in the Cayman Islands, highlights of my life have always included traveling. But if I’m honest with myself, I probably won’t become one of those people who are in a new country every week, and that’s okay, but there are two things I know I want to do before I die.

  1. Backpacking through Europe. This has always been on the top of my bucket list. I just want to go with a group of friends traveling city to city via train, bike ride through Amsterdam, go to the art museums in France, or swim in the oceans of Greece. There’s so many opportunities in Europe that there wouldn’t need to be a full agenda to make the trip enjoyable.
Photo Credit: weheartit.com

2. A horseback riding safari through Africa. I didn’t even know this was a thing until a couple months ago, but it’s been on my mind ever since. I’ve always wanted to go on an African safari, but being able to do it on horseback would make it ten times better. Just picturing galloping through the Savannas near the zebras and the antelope under the bright sun, it seems to surreal to be true, but it is.

These are just two things out of a dozen. The world is so big that exploring every inch of it in such a short time seems impossible. But I want to make sure that I discover as much of it as I can.

Money Can Buy You Happiness

rufusdespacitoLeave a comment

In every sport except one, in order to be phenomenal you must practice non-stop and dedicate every hour of your day to challenging yourself in the sport; every sport except for horseback riding. Many people say that money can’t buy you happiness, but in this sport, all riders believe it to be true. Money can buy your way into fame and top ribbons in competitions.

In jumpers, in order to be a good rider that is not as wealthy as your competition, it still requires the same amount of dedication that other sports do; but, if you are rich and can afford to buy $500,000 horses then no matter what type of rider you are you can race your way around the course, be the most ratchet rider in existence, and win every class.

In hunters, the people with the most money always win, even though everyone argues it to be unfair, it has been this way for a century or two. Everything about the owners riding can be inferior to someone with less money than them, but because their horse is nicer, and therefore more careful with it’s legs, it will be able to clear anything you set them up to. Especially in hunters, how you place depends entirely on the fanciness of your horse; including the way it moves, carries itself, jumps, and its flexibility. Hunters is a sport for those of the upper class and all you see at shows in that aspect are people flaunting their money everywhere and paying any price for their daughters to place well.

This aspect of horseback riding frustrates many people in the sport, but yet those who truly love to ride continue to compete no matter the outcome.

Photo Credit: horseshowsbythebay.com

A Different Kind of Valentines Day

beetlejusLeave a comment

Valentines, a time for chocolate, roses and an overwhelming amount of bitterness from the people who don’t have a significant other to share the Hallmark holiday with. 

Sure, Valentines day is a corporate holiday created to make money but it seems like it’s here to stay, so why not make the best of it. 

Valentines day doesn’t have to be just about romantic love, but also the every day kind of love.

 The love you feel for the barista who makes your coffee every morning, therefore saving you from the sleep deprived sadness that was about to strike at any minute.   The love you feel for scary movies and peanut butter sandwiches and wind chimes may not make your heart beat faster, but they are things that make you happy. 

Love doesn’t have to be measured in overzealous romantic gestures but in the little things that make your day a little bit better. 

The contents of my 6 year old purse reveal the things I love: crumpled coffee receipts, a ticket from a movie I saw with my dad and my favorite red nail polish.    

The lack of romantic love in my life isn’t a negative for me.  While most girl yearn for the unrealistic romances straight from the pages of a Nicholas Sparks movie, this Valentines Day I want to be doing something I love.  I will be with my family this year, which for me is better than any Ryan Gosling or Channing Tatum.

 

Happiness

thebeigegirl

I hear a lot of people say, “Why is my life so hard?”

And I want to ask them back is, “Why do you think that your life shouldn’t be hard?”

People, including myself, have a tendency to perceive hard lives to be unhappy lives.

However, if you change the way you think a little bit, you can be happier than before.

PC: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/23/chasing-happiness_n_5197699.html

There are tiring parts but there are still fun parts in our lives.

If you don’t love all your tough challenges and uphill battles, you are not loving your own life.

Love your entire life, even the hardest parts of it.

Happiness will then come to you.

PC: http://deliveringhappiness.com/reasons-for-living-its-the-little-things/

 

Tiny Wins

kennyrooLeave a comment

“The more your praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” – Oprah Winfrey

Yes, I just quoted Oprah.

But maybe, just maybe she has the right idea about this topic.

I like to call these daily praises and celebrations “tiny wins.”

These tiny wins can really be anything, but I think it is ever so important that we at least acknowledge them.

It could be, as big as passing your license test the first time, or as small as learning all the lyrics to that new song you love. But these happy moments in life must not be wasted.

Everyday may not be great, but there is something great in everyday.

I know it is so easy to talk about all the annoyances in your life – but when we’re old and grey are all of these minuscule inconveniences going to matter?

Looking back on my life on want to celebrate my tiny, and huge wins with an enormous grin on my face.

https://i0.wp.com/deliveringhappiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/98164466848335250_C4DOB4O4_c.jpg
Photo Credit to: http://deliveringhappiness.com/

We live in a generation where so much is shared; so let’s start sharing our wins instead of our losses.

Definitely, Maybe

Paloma SpencerLeave a comment

Ever since my junior year I have been absolutely in love with one movie in particular: Definitely, Maybe.

Not only is Ryan Reynolds extremely good-looking, but the story line itself consists of a mixture of classic love stories and utter reality.

It begins with a man whose current divorce leads his daughter to question his past love lovers. He begins with his college sweetheart and ends with discovering the love of his life in the one that was right under his nose.

I think I love it so much because it is so relatable. Mostly everyone will have numerous loves in our life time. We may discover them in close friends, reignite old flames, and find out that we can love someone even more than we imagined.

I am definitely a hopeless romantic, and I do hope that just like the main character I will be able to discover love through different scenery, different experiences, and the inevitable trial-and-error.

Intelligence Guarantees Success?

vabenissimoLeave a comment

With an IQ 220, Kim Ung Yong from South Korea surprised the world. He spoke fluently by 6 months, read Japanese, Korean, German, and English by an age of 2, solved a calculus problem when he was just 4 years old, and divulged his talents in poetry and painting during his childhood. He even took College courses in Korea from 4 to 7.

His IQ is an equivalent of the one of Leonardo da Vinci. However, none of these fancy titles like a prodigy, Guinness recorder, and genius mattered to him. They rather reminded himself of a “monkey in a zoo.”

Voluntarily leaving from his work at NASA at an age of 14, he looked for “his” life in Korea. Due to an absence of his elementary, middle school, and high school diplomas, he began his education from the very basics.

When he chose to enter an infamous university located in rural region of Korea despite his high score on standardized tests, the world derided at his choice and called him as a failure.

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