Happiness Is…

I want to start a weekly tradition of listing off different definitions of happiness. Because (in the middle of the week, especially) everyone needs a reminder of all the delightful things life has to offer.
 
 
 
 

So without further ado, happiness is…

• cracking up in your car while driving alone because you are successfully remembering all of the lines in Weird Al Yankovic’s “White and Nerdy” (First in my class here at MIT, got skills, I’m a champion at D&D . . .)

[Side note: Please tell me I’m not the only one who dances in the car. All the time.]

• having dreams and being super pumped about achieving them. This is due to my recent discovery of the perfect grad school and my constant replaying of the goofy song “Catch Your Dream” from Parks and Recreation.

• belting out Regina Spektor at a piano on BYU campus and not caring a bit who hears me.

• the fact that a Pride and Prejudice baby board book exists and that my friend let me buy one for her future daughter, already cementing myself as the creative, weirdie aunt. Awesome.

• the anticipation of the return of fall TV. I don’t think I’d be nearly as excited about some of these shows if I didn’t have to spend all summer without them (and to make matters worse, I had to settle for some crappy reality TV). Absence does make the heart grow fonder.

• this dance (from the only non-crappy summer reality TV).

 

• discovering, as painful as it is, that you now understand every line of Taylor Swift’s “Forever and Always” because you’ve felt that way and, if you have to be heartbroken, at least there is someone that went through the same thing and made something hugely successful from it.

• the beauty of believing in something bigger than yourself, believing that there is someone divine and merciful to guide you and save you because you know what trouble you’d be if you had to do anything all on your own.

• the massive snow cones you can buy in Provo. With sweetened condensed milk on top. Nom nom.

• any photo of a bulldog/multiple bulldogs.

• people who think you have great taste in music. Even better, the songs I recommended to this friend were The Early November’s “1000 Times a Day” and Birdy’s “Skinny Love.” Those songs are happiness on their own.

• friends that always have your best intentions at heart.

• a solar-powered dancing flower that sits on my windowsill and looks like something out of (500) Days of Summer, the scene where Joseph Gordon-Levitt starts dancing because he’s so in love. Wait a second . . .

 

And that’s my first ever use of iMovie too.

Tell me in the comments what happiness means to you this week. May the end of your weeks be legendary!