A while ago I conducted a thought experiment on my social media about small moments of joy and where people find them. I thought this would be an interesting question because everyone has different experiences with joy and where they find it. Plus it makes people think about happy things which really has no downside. I attached a short TED talk to my Facebook post on joy that talks about things people usually associate with joy such as balloons, swirly lollipops, bubbles, bright pops of color, and rounded edges. No one mentioned things like these when I asked them about what brings them joy but talked instead on experiential moments. Moments like looking into the eyes of their child when they were placed in their arms for the first time, seeing pride or joy in the faces of others, picking up friends from the airport after a long time apart, high school graduation, etc. Maybe these are moments we can relate to or not but what matters is that for someone, these memories are associated with a feeling of pure, simple joy, an emotion we wish everyone experiences as much as they can through life.

The first moment that brought me to this topic was on a spontaneously sunny day in January. I thought that Spring had magically come early and of course, I was wrong (thanks Eugene) but it still felt great to have the sun shining if just for a day. Nothing spectacular occurred on this day. I just remember walking to class with a smoothie in hand, the taste of lemon and ginger exploding on my tongue, the sun shining down on my head, and a long forgotten song playing through my headphones. A sense of overwhelming joy and contentment fell over me. I hadn't accomplished anything, in particular, it was just the combination of simple, yet joyful things that made me feel perfectly content. I think acknowledging this moment is really important because of the fact that it didn't include a massive accomplishment. I find it's easy to get caught up in goals and go go going that we forget that joy can be found in simple everyday things. Yes, large accomplishments can bring us immense joy but so can a peaceful walk on the beach or being reunited with a longtime friend.

My reason for bringing up this topic is that I think we should allow ourselves to spend more time thinking about joy. We should go about our day acknowledging the things that make us happy rather than letting them slip through our minds before jumping to the next thing we have to do. We should spend more time in the moment. More time dancing, singing, laughing, watching the clouds, listening to good music, drinking hot tea, and doing whatever brings us joy. Think of it as a brain break. You probably need it. You may feel like you can't afford it but trust me, you can. Your sanity depends on it. Yes, society may be telling you to be on 24/7 but that's just not plausible and we need to push back on that expectation. No one can keep going continuously. We all need a break and acknowledging and going out of our way to experience things that bring us joy is the perfect way to spend that break. It's rejuvenating and memorable. It's good to have a store of moments that brought you joy to refer back to but there's no way to have that unless we're paying attention to those things in the moment.

Society is telling you to speed up but I'm telling you to slow down and excuse my cliche but smell the roses. Recognize the things that bring you joy and go out and do them. I can't guarantee anything but I'm confident you'll be a much happier human being because of it. My new appreciation of joy is what has led me to want to spread it and remind people of it because I hate that we've allowed ourselves to forget it.

Why have we forgotten it? I think one of the big reasons is because it feels childish. As if staring open-mouthed at a double rainbow is childish and we feel ashamed if we get caught doing it. Well, guess what. F*** that. I hope you stare open-mouthed at that rainbow until your tongue feels like paper.  I hope you skip down the beach, arms swinging instead of listening to your "adult" brain and walking calmly with zero emotion on your face. I hope you allow yourself to pack a picnic and head to a park and drink La Croix while staring up at the sky for hours trying to identify obscure shapes in the clouds. And yes La Croix needed to be included in this post because it's another thing that brings me immense joy. The Key Lime flavor to be specific, thanks to my dear friend Christina for introducing me to it. There are so many opportunities every day for us to appreciate small acts of joy. So let's do it. If you're considered childish for doing so then obviously the people that say so have no idea what joy is and should read this. Tell them to come talk to me and I'll send them a care package of joyful things or give them instructions to go to Disneyland and hug Mickey Mouse until the smile on their face is irremovable.

I'm very passionate about this whole joy thing as you can tell so you should probably just listen to me so I don't have to come after you. I promise you won't be disappointed. I just want more people to realize how joy can and should be a daily part of life. I urge you to end each day by thinking back on a moment of joy you experienced that day. I bet you'll find you're a much happier person because of it.

I've had many moments of joy today but one of them was sitting outside, drinking what some might call a sickeningly sweet iced coffee but me a joyfully sweet iced coffee and writing this post. What's yours?

- KAJ

My thoughts are being vigorously typed onto my Notes page, fingers flying across a screen that’s much too small for the extensive writing I’ve suddenly been inspired to do. My “emotional” playlist is playing through my ears drowning out the world around me. Something about this playlist, my sheer exhaustion, and the darkness surrounding me as I drive down the highway has put me in a heartfelt mood. A mood that hits me ever so often with such intensity that the emotions that crash over me make the thoughts flying through my brain almost impossible to comprehend let alone write down. Yet it’s always my best content. The thoughts that mean the most to me. Tonight I got lucky and here I am writing things down. This time my thoughts were drawn to a new friend, someone I’ve come to admire with my whole heart. This girl is the type of person you meet for the first time and automatically wish you had known your entire life. Genuine is too small a term to encompass the depth of honesty and kindness found within her. I can’t even say I know her well yet I know deep within me how wonderful of a human being she is.

She talks to every person she encounters with so much compassion. You could easily pour out your whole soul to her before you even knew what you were doing and she wouldn’t even mind. She’d wrap you in a massive hug before calmly telling you exactly where you’re right and exactly where you’re wrong. And you’ll know she’s right. Any encounter with this girl is a blessing. You’ll walk away feeling better than you did before entering her presence. Not only do I value how genuine she is but how quickly she can jump from a fun and playful mood to complete seriousness when the need arises. That takes an incredible amount of maturity that is hard to come by. As I mentioned before, I’m not even incredibly close with this girl, but even from a distance, I’ve witnessed her brilliance and true heart. My pure shock and amazement are what have led me to write this all down in the first place. I’m acknowledging what I’ve found. Now I’m not trying to keep her to myself, there’s no way she’d let me anyway. This girl is a free spirit. I’m purely pointing out an incredible anomaly I’ve found in the hopes that you remember to be on the lookout for incredible people like her. Next time I see her in person I’ve told myself I’m going to tell her how much I value her. Straight to her face. I think she deserves my appreciation. I don’t owe it to her due to any specific encounter but that’s not what this is about anyway. I urge you to also verbally acknowledge the amazing people surrounding you. They could be your closest friend, your mom, or the grocery store cashier that gives you a bright smile every time you come through their line. Everyone deserves a little random act of appreciation. Too many selfless acts go without acknowledgment and we have the ability to change that. Please don’t think I’m urging you to write an incredibly long and dramatic blog post about how awesome the people you know are. That would be totally overkill (haha oh the irony). I mean if that’s the best way for you to call out awesome people then, by all means, please type away. Send me the link. I’ll like, subscribe, repost, the works. But obviously, there are other ways to go about this. A simple word of thanks or a compliment of someone’s personality or actions is all you need. It goes a long way. So let’s try to make this more of a norm. By doing so we’ll improve not only other people’s quality of life but our own as well. I don’t see any downsides. Do you?

Songs that played while I wrote this because I know you’re so incredibly intrigued about my “all the emotions” playlist on Apple Music (not an ad but you should still check it out):

• Just a Little Bit of Your Heart - Ariana Grande
• Too Good at Goodbyes - Sam Smith
• Fix You - Coldplay
• Big Girls Cry - Sia
• Already Gone - Kelly Clarkson
• If This is Love - Ruth B.
• Kmttp - 1$T
• Coloring - Kevin Garrett
• Bad Dreams (Piano Version) - Faouzia
• Machine - Amber Run
• Jesus Wept - Sia
• All I Could Do Was Cry - Beyonce
• changes - XXXTENTACION
• The Letter - Kehlani
• Airplanes (feat. Hayley Williams of Paramore) - B.o.B

I'm sure there were more but I'm embarrassed by how long my writing process truly is so that's all you get. Thanks for reading and don't forget to appreciate someone amazing today.

yours truly, kaeleigh