It’s a bitter cold Saturday morning in December, and I slowly struggle to press my tired feet against the wooden floor boards adjacent to my cozy bed. Making a few quick steps, I answer my chirping IPhone with a faint and groggy “Hello?”. After a few brief moments of “Oh okay.”, “Sure.”, “What time do you need me?”, I find myself accepting my coworkers pleading “SOS” to cover her shift. It’s five-thirty A.M, and as I begin the horrid endeavor which every teenage girl spends far too much of their life doing. I throw on some cheap mascara, comb my knotted hair, and make a mad dash to brush off my snow covered SUV. Coffee. Coffee is such a beautiful thing. My valiant and speedy efforts to prepare for greeting tables with a smile, politely stating “Hi, my name is Julie and I’ll be your server this morning.”, left me with just enough time to run into Starbucks and order my Venti sugar-free vanilla iced coffee with skim milk. While waiting in line to order, I find myself thinking, “Wow, this is great. It’s not like I wanted to sleep in today or anything”, overtly rolling my eyes to myself. Then, I suddenly hear the all too familiar sound of sniffling, as I look back to see a distressed woman behind me struggling to convey a message over the phone, as she frantically wipes away an abundance of tears. I quickly shift my vision back to the drink menu, but I can’t help but overhear the heart-wrenching conversation. From what words I could make out, I gathered that the woman’s father had passed away from a terrible illness just last weekend, and it was evident, as to be expected, she was having a tough time. “Excuse me, miss? Would you like to place an order?” I suddenly realized I had been neglecting my position in line, and it was finally my turn. Even ordering, I could still hear the sniffling and despair from behind me, causing me to feel uneasy. I slid the cashier an extra twenty dollars, and asked her to please use it to cover the woman’s drink behind me, and let her keep the change. The petite cashier’s expression, went from confused, to observational, and then to an understanding smile. I made a few paces to the left, grabbed my ice cold caffeinated beverage, and headed for the door. I turned back one last time just as the store-front windows were becoming blurred and out of sight to see the woman putting her hand over her mouth in shock. A moment later, the cashier whispered something to her, and the next thing I knew, her tearful bright blue eyes were looking my way. Her expression seemed like it had been suddenly reborn, and somehow through the pain, she showed a beaming smile as she mouthed “Thank You” to me. On the brief car ride to work, I could not stop thinking about what I had done. I knew my small act of kindness could never make up for her loss, but it felt like I had not only given her some piece of happiness, but also myself. What I initially thought had been a “rough” morning for me, was not even comparable to what she was dealing with. I was able to make her smile. If that’s not awesome, I don’t know what is.
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It’s the winter, been snowing for days. Today you got off the bus and start walking towards your house just like usual. Walking with your buddy and talked about how your day went, how much homework you have to do, how tired you felt. But then suddenly, the strange feeling came up. You felt like the ground isn’t there anymore; you felt like your brain was empty and your heart stopped. You couldn’t remember anything because everything went by so fast. The second you start wondering what happened, the next second you found out why-----you just stepped on the ice and thankfully you caught your balance again. Your eyes were widened, mouth was slightly opened, the heart was pumping very fast, and both hands were stretched out with both knees bending. You turned and looked at your friend with the “did you see what just happened?” expression on your face. Gosh, that moment when you caught your balance, that wonderful feeling is like riding on a roller coaster. Except this would actually hurt if you had fallen. Flu season has burdened us for centuries now and it seems that the only method to rid yourself of the flu is to just wait it out. This waiting comes with a price though. The coughing, the sneezing, the fever, it's not a good time. You just want the symptoms to go away. The worst part of it all is perhaps the most simple- when one of your nostrils is clogged so you can barely breathe. After a few days of agony and extreme annoyance, your nose is free, and it feels like you are being reborn. Scratch a flu vaccine, we need a nasal unclogger that works….ASAP. Most people cannot boast about a resting face that looks particularly pleasant; when you make your way through the streets your focus isn’t on the expressions you're making. But, smiles from strangers still remain some of the World’s smallest, brightest moments. Whether it's checking out at a store, traipsing down the sidewalk, or taking the painfully quiet and surprisingly long journey of an elevator ride, someone simply giving you a positive look can make your day improve tenfold. The little boy waving at you from the backseat of a car and the woman who runs like an eager stork in her heels to catch the office door so she can pull back the heavy metal as you both walk through are the people who can effect your mood in 30 seconds or less with one thing: kindness. Perhaps chivalry is “dead” because we’ve all started considering it normal--or at least we should--because we know how far giving a little can go. So cover your mouth when you cough, but look around you when you smile; one is just as contagious as the other. When someone grins at you and you feel the corners of your mouth suddenly get out of the bed of your mouth and stretch into the morning of a smile, remember that you can wake up someone elses day too by just putting a little hope on your face. I have not forgotten you, I have simply tucked you away and sealed you into a special place, a secret spot that lies deep in my heart, hidden and protected from all the danger and sorrow that life throws at us. Every once in a while, I pull you out and think about what could have been and what will be. Sometimes, I try stretching my arm out to make you my own reality, but the force of failure bounds me into to a cemented terrain that keeps me from reaching out to you. The harder I pull myself closer to you, and the harder I reach out to you, I find myself being pulled further and further away until light reaches me no more, but as the saying goes, there is always light at the end of every tunnel. At this very moment, that light shines brighter than any star in the black night. Its power is so strong, that it breaks the force that separates me from Earth and sky. My shackles are broken and I am freed so that I am able to grasp the furthest star that is out of reach. I clutch it close to me, close to my heart, close to my soul. I close my eyes and leap out to you. I lock myself away into your special spot, where I am able to see you once again, and I never will go back. So you see, you were never meant to be forgotten, you were just meant to be remembered. So we start off where we left it, from the beginning and there is no stopping me from doing the impossible because dreaming is an awesome thing. That near-death experience that you expose yourself to on purpose, and the feeling you get from it. Whether it's jumping out of a plane or going fast on something that you can't stop, a quick adrenaline rush feels awesome. If it wasn't, adrenaline-junkies wouldn't be a thing. If you are someone who loves that rush, pursue an extreme sport. Athletes who participate in these sports take something you could die from doing and continually add things to make it more difficult just for that quick rush. That moment where its 50/50 but you keep getting lucky, it's a feeling that can't be replicated. If it happened all the time it would lose its novelty, but that's the same with anything. That's awesome. It is 9:00 on a Monday night in the middle of February. You realize that your body can't even escape the freezing temperatures in your own home since your bedroom is the least insulated room in the whole house. You climb into bed with a sweater and sweatpants on, curling up into a ball to keep yourself warm for the night when suddenly you hear the door creak open. Then shortly after, you hear a familiar high-pitched grunt as something climbs onto your bed. You see the small, soft heat generator creep to your pillow to sniff your face curiously. Its glowing green eyes stare at you, as if to say “how could you be cold?”. It continues to lurk next to you and suddenly plops down, clumsily, onto your stomach, stretching out as it gets itself comfortable. It does not take long for it to begin purring, turning itself into a free massage. It also begins heating up your comforter, making your shivering come to a delicate stop as you are able to stretch out on the bed. You are finally free from the freezing clutches of winter. You walk in to a home full of laughter and cute kids. As the parents leave and the tots are jumping onto you, they casually say, “Oh, and feel free to eat any of our food…” and you say thank you, unknowing of what amazingness lies ahead of you in the kitchen area. When you prepare the kids’ dinner soon after, you begin to see it all- your favorite foods that you already ate at your own house or your mom won’t buy because she thinks they’re junky- everything, from Cheez-Its to gelato to Sprite to animal crackers. You realize how glorious this is, and your mouth waters for the next few hours while you keep playing with the kiddos after dinner, having a good time. Once you tuck them so they’re nice and warm, and say goodnight, you gracefully walk down the stairs- only to sprint to the kitchen to find a slice of bliss- that food. You gather it up in your arms and plunge into the leather couch, complete with a fleece blanket and the remote control. The gloriousness fills your body and you just relax, knowing you did a great job, while eating the deliciousness. You got a two-in-one deal- adorable children to play with, and good food! The spinner glides across the six measly numbers. Your game piece sits all alone on the 24th square. Everyone else had passed you up long ago, passing along through the 60’s row. The slowing spinner pulls you out of your daze. The little plastic arrow crawls over the number 5, with just enough momentum to push it forward to the four spot. You pick up your piece as you anxiously skip ahead 4 spots. ...25, 26, 27… Yes! You quickly set your piece on 28, sitting it just long enough for everyone else playing to realize what you had just done. Not wasting another moment, you rush the piece across the longest ladder of the game board, skipping past 56 spots where your opponents wallow in. Only 16 more spaces to go. Just pray that you don’t go right back down the longest slide, just 3 short spaces away. The ceilings are so high they scrape at the stars, and the aisles are so long they stretch the length of three football fields. Each row is lined precisely with cellophane wrapped boxes, huge monstrosities bursting with an array of mass produced home goods. Everything gleams a clean white and vivacious red; my feeble attention span is no match for the clever marketing at play. Yet, there is a distinct smell in the air as Cranberry mothers bustle by, tugging at their hypnotized children’s plump arms, who beg for just a few more minutes to explore this grocery store wonderland. It is the thing that captivates everyone’s attention, young and old. What has so much power that it can hop a generation gap? Saturday morning Costco samples. Like a beacon, the samples draw hordes into the store, mobs of hungry wanting nothing more than to make a little sampler of tasty treats for free. Swedish meatballs, baked chicken, mini strawberry smoothies newly blended. No matter what is featured, they clamor in, shopping carts as defense mechanisms, divide, and conquer. “All this for a couple of samples?” friends ask me, confused by the smile plastered on my face after a successful conquest. But, they just don’t understand the thrill of it all. The thrill of a million different flavors, so conveniently placed throughout the store on metal carts, ripe for the taking. And that, my friends, is simply awesome. |
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