Reasons To Smile

(I actually wrote this... quite a long time ago. I've been in a shitty mood all day and was checking my drafts on here when I came across it. How appropriate.) :)

For anyone who's ever felt shitty.

One of the givens of being a teenager is that you will undoubtedly have at least one "breakdown." In your head, a soft, acoustic soundtrack plays and you stare out the window with blurry tear-induced vision and you watch the rain fall, because of course it is raining. It's all very dramatic and, you think, definitely something out of a Neo-Realist drama. You are the tragic hero in the story of your life and everything is spinning out of your control. You question your existence and wonder why your life is so shitty and you will definitely think the phrase, 'It's not fair,' at least once.

Blame karma. Blame that you were born under an unlucky moon. Blame the boy who broke your heart, the girl who stole him from you, and the friends that didn't tell you. Blame your parents who don't understand. Blame the extra inches creeping around your waist and the increasing stack of 'to-write' essays. Blame first your broken laptop, and then blame the makers of the laptop. Blame everything but yourself. Get increasingly more upset as time passes; every small thing begins to annoy you and you think - no, you know, that you're never going to be happy again and you should just give up because everything sucks and did you mention that it's not fair?

You should smile. Smile because the moment will pass. It may be ten minutes or ten hours. It may be one tub of ice cream and a long nap later. It may be a year and girls' night outs and movies and plenty of you time. Eventually, things will start sucking less and less, until it is just maybe a vague embarrassing memory of that-time-you-lay-face-down-on-your-bed-because-Stephen-didn't-think-you-were-going-to-work-out.

Smile because you've come this far and done whatever much. It doesn't matter if you think you've messed everything up soooooooo bad and nothing will ever be okay again. Smile because you have the power to fix something; you will never have control over every aspect of the world, but there will always be an action you can take, even if it is just dragging your ass down to the mall to cheer yourself up. Smile because you can actually do something. Work those facial muscles and smile just because you bloody can.

Smile for everywhere you're going to go. You will go to your favourite places in your town. You will leave your town and travel the world. You will visit places you've only seen in pictures and pass by towns you've never even heard of. You will learn new things and customs. Smile for all the new food you will eat and you won't like all of it but that's okay.

Smile for everything to come. The classes you'll take, the people you'll meet. The arguments you'll get into. The people you'll fall in love with and the hours you'll spend entangled in each other's arms. The conversations that you'll never forget and the experiences you won't either.

Smile for all the experiences that did not, in fact, break you, but instead made you stronger.