I think that the most common question I receive on a day to day basis is why I smile so much. Even in times when I have a good reason not to smile, I tend to show more optimism than anything. For example, even after a pretty terrible day at my work this summer where everything seemed to go wrong, I was able to still wear a smile on my face. I baffled my coworkers with my ability to smile through all of that stress. Usually, when people ask me questions like “How on Earth are you still smiling,” I usually recite the quote “You Are Never Fully Dressed without a Smile” because I truly don’t know why I am so smiley all the time.

I do know that I am generally a happy person, and some would believe that I live on an island of sunshine and rainbows. However, I do have my days where I am consumed with negative thoughts. I have my moments where I am either angry with someone or something, I am stressed beyond belief, or just generally upset with the world. Sometimes I do have my days where I just want to crawl in my bed and not come out for a few days.

I really hate having these feelings more than anything else. When I allow myself to feel sad or angry, it feels like I have a parasite feasting on my insides like an all-you-can-eat buffet. I just feel so gross and disgusting whenever I feel this way. I think that the feeling of being sad makes me feel even sadder than I was to begin with. Say for example that my friend has to cancel our plans last minute after we have had these plans for weeks. The natural reaction for me is to feel sad, and even a little bit angry at this occurrence. My mind will recognize that I feel sad, and this will make me feel even sadder, as I am sad that I am feeling sad. Soon enough, I get myself in this never-ending cycle of feeling these negative feelings more and more intensely each time I think about them. These feelings are like mosquitos to me; I just want to swat them away before they consume everything that is in me.

I have realized that if I am able to smile when I am feeling negative, then I know that everything will be OK in the end. If I can think of some sort of positive experience I had that day or week, and think about how happy that moment made me, I can usually start to feel better about that situation. For example, say I had a bad day at work with customers yelling in my face and throwing things because I couldn’t give them what they wanted, and I also couldn’t seem to please my boss no matter what I did. I am going to think to myself that this is the worst shift ever, so I will start to feel really sad and angry with myself. However, if I am able to think of something positive that happened during that shift, like the fun I had goofing around planning weddings with my coworker, or how I made a child’s day by talking with them about trains (I worked in a railroad museum), I can make myself smile. I will realize that this situation isn’t the end of the world since I am able to smile. According to some psychological theories, your body helps control your emotions. This means that when you smile, even though you may not be feeling happy, you will start to feel happier. I have the power to make myself feel better just by willing myself to smile.

If I were to go back and answer the question about why I smile so much, I would say it is because smiling is the best medicine. My motto is that a smile a day keeps the bad feelings away. I could just as well throw myself a pity party, or binge eat a tub of ice cream to make myself feel better when I am feeling negative. If I did this though, I would just be accepting defeat; I would be letting those mosquitos consume everything that is left of me. You could say I am a smile addict, as I enjoy the feeling of pure joy a smile can bring me. Smiling makes me feel invincible because I know that just as long as I am able smile, nothing can bring me down. I smile because I know that the world has yet to knock me down.