Smile

Smile

“And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.” - Abraham Lincoln

“God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.” –Voltaire

“Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!” -Dr. Seuss

Life has a dependency rate, you live it on the basis of an unknown factor and you won’t be able to ever count how much time you have left. If you remember this from fight club it would be great “This is your life and it’s ending one minute at a time.”

Time and life are connected in a complex manner. The thing is today is my birthday, yes it is, thank you and no I am not giving a party today. So I have asked many people about birthday’s, someone said it was to remind you that you are getting older so be wiser, someone said it was a way to remember when you were born, someone said to remind you yet another year passed and this is how close have you got to your goals in life and the last person said cut the cake or else we start with the face painting already. Well the last person seemed legit since I had painted his face too, but trust me he looked hilarious.

Something was stuck in my head the goals that were not accomplished this year, I always kept records of stuff that I achieved and the stuff that I have to achieve. Every year I felt I have missed a lot of stuff, I have not grown wiser or was I wasting the time of my life.

Suddenly I look around me, I was never good at ‘socializing’, I was never good on ‘maintaining friendships’, I was never good at ‘being present for my friends’ but yet they were around me and had also gotten me an amazing cake. It would have been different they wishing me over the internet or call, they were there for me, they were to make me smile, they were to paint me even though I was only there for a very few of them. I felt guilty a bit.

But the thing that I realized and what I have been wanting to say out loud is ‘This is what I wanted, this was never my goal but seeing them smile and wish me made me feel good, it was not the cake, it was nothing else, not only them even seeing my parents happy that I am growing, they didn’t expect me to get wiser, they just loved to see me grow.’

Everybody has a goal, but not everybody sees that it’s not about goals in the end, it’s about happiness, the goals might be different for everyone but the wanted end result always will be happiness, I have not finished my goals but I am still happy for this day I guess that’s why they say ‘Happy Birthday’. Maybe that is life being happy, that’s why on the day we are born, each year we celebrate it with rejoices. Maybe we are also meant to stay like this forever. I am not saying be aimless, I am saying maybe we should be happy, with or without succeeding in our goals, because that way we never lose, because we do get the end result and because that way we live life in a better way. The simple way to stay happy further would be spreading happiness, because when you have a smile on your face the faces you see with that face will also smile, because nobody likes to show rude face to a great smile and everybody has a great smile (especially me). Smile because it doesn’t cost you anything and returns you the same. Smile as it burns calories and its best exercise for lazy people out there.

I have heard a saying “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional”. Keep the pain aside and smile, because no one has to suffer as it is optional. Life might be a one-time offer so spend it wisely and keep smiling.

-Dhruvil Joshi