The Little Things in Life

It’s funny how at times it’s so hard for things to cheer us up from a terrible day. Your friends can try their best to diagnose the problem but you know that you’re not going to budge or respond to their attempts. Then suddenly life just hands you something spontaneous and seemingly insignificant and your day is instantly brightened by the change of pace. A few months ago, I was having one of those days. Things weren’t going the way I wanted and I was miserable due to a whole host of other issues (such as moving away). So I set myself on autopilot and just let the day go by without really trying anything to make myself feel better. Then I went to the bathroom of a Jack in the Box and my entire day got better. Whoa, that actually sounds raunchy, but trust me what happened was incredibly innocent and even child-like . When I went to go wash my hands I ran into someone who didn’t exactly look like an approachable person. I reserved my judgments and went to the sink at the same time he did. The bathroom only had one sink so I waved and told him to go first. This was the beginning of a standoff. He smiled and told me to go ahead while he gestured the same way I did. Now it’s on. We spent maybe half a minute urging each other to go ahead, each second our smile getting wider. We simultaneously spent half our effort increasing the inflection of our voices each time. There was only one way to settle this. We had to duke it out with a gentleman duel of rock-paper- scissors. I pulled out the classic scissors, confident that this game would end with my victory. He did the same. A tie. We went on to go scissors again five times in a row and we just erupted in laughter at the ridiculousness. At least four more scissors later from both sides I tossed in a paper because for some reason it just felt right, bringing me to my defeat. We shook hands, introduced ourselves while still laughing with absolute glee at the spontaneity of the situation and parted ways. Suddenly, I felt the weight of the world lifting off my shoulders. I didn’t feel like Atlas holding up the sky anymore, but instead I felt like a human just going through life with its ups and downs. Maybe that guy was having a terrible day too and he needed that encounter. It’s the little, unexpected things that you go on to tell stories about and reminds you that life is not that bad. There are countless opportunities on a daily basis out there just waiting to bring you a smile and things like this puts life in perspective for you. It reminds you to not always take yourself so seriously. It reminds you that everything will be okay. There’s never any use holding on to the weight of the world. The little things in life are everywhere and can even be found in the dirty public restroom of a Jack in the Box.