I have spent twenty years (almost twenty-one, woot woot) on this beautiful, luscious planet that we call Earth. I have met lovely people of different nationalities, religions and personalities. I have experienced unconditional love and great loss. I have moved from place to place and I still find myself at home. I have packed my car with all of my belongings and lived off what I had left. I have lost loves, friends and family members. I have felt pain to the point where I have gone numb with sadness. With that being said, I have also felt happiness that has brought me to bust out in dance moves with tears of joy sprinkling my dance floor.

Through all of these experiences, how am I?

I am happy. I am the happy girl. That is me. I am her.

Many of you don’t know my story, and that is fine because it is my story to tell. I have overcome extreme circumstances, hardships and pain. Those of you that know what I have been through ask me how? How do I put the genuine one dimpled smile on my face?

My response: I choose to.

This is how I see it, we live in this world that is full of pain, grief and obstacles. These are things that we have no control over. We don’t choose to experience those heartbreaks. On the other side of that, we don’t choose to fall in love, it simply just happens. We are left with the choice of our reaction to it all. Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to downplay how hard this can be. Life can be devastating, but focusing energy into the negative aspect of it is not going to get any of us anywhere. Allowing a loving space to grow from the situations that we find ourselves in, that will get us somewhere.

I believe in the simple acts of love, kindness, compassion and happiness.

I invite you to choose happy.

Choose happy and smile your toothy grin wide and proud, from cheek to cheek. Who knows, you may just get a smile back.