Update: I nearly forgot. While I was at Pete’s, an older woman, a complete stranger, walked by and touched my shoulder and said “that haircut looks really good on you.” I think it altered the rest of my evening in a very positive way.

Yes, great movie, but that’s not what I’m talking about. It’s been a weird blur of a week. I’m over half done with The Art of Happiness. I’m pretty sure it’s going to get a second read-through with some underlining (I keep forgetting to grab a pencil). I kind of feel reborn.

Yesterday morning I helped a woman free her bag from the bus door. It was quite stuck and the whole scenario really seemed to have the lady shaken up. She started telling me that it was her first day using the bus and that everything was just going wrong. I smiled and told her that I felt sure it would get better and not to let today get her down. I heard her take a deep breath before speaking a very sincere “thank you” for my help and the reassurance.

It was such a small/short moment, but I truly feel that I empowered that lady to save her day. I smiled as I crossed the street to the office and thought how much I attributed all that just happened to the book I was reading just moments before.

I had a fabulous day at work. I socialized with people and made myself one of the team. I had this massive epiphany that it’s more awkward for me to be silent than to introduce myself in to a conversation. People don’t care. It’s only my paranoia that thinks they might. I have much more work to do on this front, but I’m on the right track.

I managed to help another person at the bus stop later that day. Troubles on the 10 day I suppose. I also got a very unexpected call from my little brother, who just started college a couple weeks ago. Of course, he needed my help with writing a paper, but he did ask how things were going and stayed on the phone long enough to have a decent conversation. He’s really growing up, and it looks like he might just turn out okay.

I called my sister, since I was sure she had also gotten the call. She had. She was actually talking to him when I returned his call. His exact words were “Oh, it’s Mindy. She’ll help me. She does this stuff for fun [write papers].” Ah, he knows me too well. I sincerely miss writing school papers.

After that call, I phoned home to share the news with my mom. Somehow calling to say that the brother was asking for help with his work (like a good kid) turned in to a 2-hour conversation where I finally told her a lot of things I had kept from her for close to 5 years. It was a conversation I’d been delaying for some time, but it was time that I told her my true intentions behind my move across the country. I told her of the severe depression I’d been dealing with for the past several years. I told her how I realized that the only way to release myself from the ties of my past was to go where no one knew my past, and somewhere that would help me feel free to be myself. I really have far to come in sharing feelings with my family. My holiday visit home presents the lofty task of trying to create open dialog within my family. We shouldn’t need a few drinks in us to say anything remotely kind.

Sure I still have down times, but I know they are bumps in the road. Life can never be free of some degree of suffering. it’s a fact of life. I just have to do all I can to make sure I do things for the right reasons and be true to myself. That’s why I had lemonade at the bar tonight, because that was what I was in the mood for. I did stay out too late but it was Caio’s going away party, so there was a reason. I don’t know him very well, but I like Kali a lot. It’s nice to know someone who shares my smalltown roots.

Oh, after my long call to my mom, I got a vid chat invite from Derek. I accepted but he was like “Are you there??? I can hear you but I don’t see you.” “Oh,” I replied, “that’s because I’m sitting here in the dark.” haha. I’m still a little weirded out by video chat. This instance was only my second time ever, but it did help get me over my anxieties to finally chat with someone other than my sister.

And lastly, the entire reason I wanted to write this post tonight (nearly 1am and I should be in bed) is because of something I saw on the bus just a bit ago. The girl sitting across from me was getting off at my same stop, so we had that moment where you both wait on the other person to enter the aisle first. Well, I noticed the girl smile at someone behind us. As I walked by the bus, I glanced up and saw a guy in the back still sitting with a hint of a smile on his face. I’m almost positive these two were strangers, and it made me smile to have seen this whole act unfold. Simple act of smiling at a stranger and it was obvious, it made this guy’s night.

So, offer a smile to a stranger, pay a compliment to a friend, and let yourself be open to the world around you. We can all help make our lives a little nicer.