My cousin is one of those people who could have his life turned into a movie. He tells these unbelievably fantastic tales about bar hopping with strangers while visiting the Caribbean islands and about being bumped to first class seats after already having been given an extra free night in a high-class hotel just because his flight was overbooked. He's that person who manages to come back with not just memories of trips he's gone on, but also with stories of never what went wrong but of how everything went more than right. Jealousy evaded me once I realize that his good fortune isn't luck; it's the way he wears his smile as his best accessory. His attitude is his most redeeming companion.
He's one of those people who looks at you, and you can easily tell that not only does he hear every word that you say, he feels it too. His crystal blue eyes are penetrating and sees into your soul as he senses your unease while answering certain questions and knows when you're holding back from answering others. His view on life has you feeling guilty, wiping away any complaint that surfaces in your mind, for a negative word rarely finds his lips and a smile is never wiped from them. His answer to hate is love. His answer to adversity is adventure. He has a gift of realizing the best in all people without being naively trusting, but I will always appreciate him for the pure way that he makes everyone feel important and inspires them to wear a smile also.
We are living on borrowed time, time that is sometimes undeserved as we take it for granted what we've been given. The average person spends about six and a half years worrying, five hours a day gossiping, and ten years working. However, most people only manage to smile seven times a day, and one is typically forced. Who we are and the lives we lead depends on the attitudes we portray, and so it makes perfect sense that my cousin, who makes the best of his own life by just being who he is and being kind to others, has these favors quickly returned to him.
It's scientifically proven that smiling actually makes us feel happier. When we smile, neurotransmitters called endorphins are released from the neurons in our brains, and, in turn, we get a euphoric "rush." Life isn't as easy as forcing a smile whenever things start looking sour, but it's kind of refreshing to smile at strangers and to start unimportant conversations with those who look like they need a little help with finding something to be happy about. At the end of the day, all we can do to erase the slight inconveniences that are thrown in our directions is to kill them with kindness. Just smile. You may find that your luck may change for the better, and it may turn out that it was never luck all along. It was just you.
