How to Get a Stranger to Smile (#32)

A guide on how to get a stranger to smile:

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl way
1: Go to your local grocery store on a lazy, humid Saturday afternoon.

2: Walk aimlessly through the cereal aisle.

3: Pretend you're on the set of a cheesy 70s film. Listen to the questionable song choice over the store's intercom system.

4: Begin singing softly to yourself. Snap like you're listening to a slow jazz song. Make your way to the frozen foods section.

5: Pass your reflection in the glass of the freezers and twirl a little. Walk by customers and watch smiles stretch across their faces like putty.

The Missed Connection way
1: Go to a big city in which you know almost no one.

2: Visit a coffee shop and order something.

3: Read that paperback you've been working on-the one with the dogeared-pages and yellowed pages.

4: Notice a stranger and smile in his/her/its direction.

5: Admire their returned smile and hastily leave the coffee shop because of overwhelming anxiety induced by human interaction.

The Expressive Artist way
1: Develop a talent that you use as an expressive outlet.

2: Make something you're proud of and start part of the co-creative process of making art.

3: Experience the other half of the co-creative process-that of the audience. Watch as what you've made affects them, how they bring their own experiences and stories to the one you've created. Watch them experience beauty.

RE: Joyas Voladoras (#31)

"So much held in a heart in a lifetime. So much held in a heart in a day, an hour, a moment. We are utterly open with no one, in the end--not mother and father, not wife or husband, not lover, child, not friend. We open windows to each but we live alone in the house of the heart. Perhaps we must. Perhaps we could not bear to be so naked, for fear of a constantly harrowed heart." While some thought the essay was somewhat negative, I thought it was purely true. Despite your attempts to shield out all sadness and heartache, you will eventually experience something that breaks down that fortress, and subsequently, you'll experience beauty. I don't think these are such cautionary words about the delicateness of hearts, but the inevitability of experiencing something achingly beautiful.


This essay made me think about some of my favorite human experiences, as such:

Whenever you're running that last bend in a race, you think about how easy it would be to just stop and walk. And everything is telling you you're right-it would be easier to just walk. But then your heart is beating so hard you're worried it might burst out of your chest, and your team is cheering you on and you're taking your final stride, and it doesn't burst. And once you're holding yourself up against the fence to find your time, you smile to yourself. You realize you've always felt this way. Even when you're not running.

Or the way you feel when it's midnight on a Tuesday; the world is silent, all except for that song that never fails to make your heart break a little. Memories are flooding you at a paralyzing rate and you're powerless. It's a school night, and you know you're not getting out of bed at six.

That time you heard from a friend you hadn't talked to in years, someone you thought you'd never see again. He marveled at how wondrous it was that you'd been apart for so long and still managed to remember your inside jokes.

Or those days when everything is golden. The world seems to be on your side, the sky feels so big you think it might swallow you whole, and you can't help but grin. You don't even think about the impending pile of homework waiting to stress you out. All you can bear to do is sigh and sing a little. Your heart is swelling and you're happy to the core, but not in that this is the best day of my life-way. Just in this is right where I need to be. 

"Every creature on earth has approximately two billion heartbeats to spend in a lifetime." And I like how I've spent mine so far.

The Quotables (#30)

Our favorite quotes can give us a lot of insight into where we are in life, who we are as people, etc; you connect to words that are relevant to you.

I saw Lost in Translation during winter one year, and since then it's stuck with me. There are so many memorable quotes from it, and it's an overall beautiful film. Also, Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson are in it, and it doesn't get much better than that.

"The more you know who you are, and what you want, the less you let things upset you." 






















I found this next gem on Tumblr. Needless to say, it's beautiful.

Pretty much everything in this poem makes my heart explode, but that one line,"This is how you make me feel...like honey and trombones." That gets me. The imagery is amazing; his voice, piercing, and the minimalistic strumming makes it all sort of magical.

What Did You Learn Today in School? (#29)

In algebra I learned that even the seemingly flawless use cheats sometimes. And I kind of really love math. In gym I learned that you’ve got a guaranteed A if you give your teacher chocolate-covered pretzels. And there’s something really gratifying about your gym teacher calling you Trin after you’ve run the mile, like “Oh, I’m so glad you feel like you’ve gotten to know me well enough to call me by a nickname I never approved”. But really. It feels good. In english I learned... In French I learned that sometimes all it takes is a little tugging to get even the hardest teachers to come around to you. I mean, it’s alright. I can conjugate verbs now, so. In history today I learned that every time you try to make an argument about the double standards women face, there is always a comment immediately afterwards that justifies feminism. Always. And Jimface will never not be my favorite thing. In art I learned that some people like to live up to preestablished stereotypes. And I still suck at sculpting, as much as I remembered. In music and media I learned that if you read American classics, you will gain a legion of adoring teachers. Also, group projects are the worst. In science I learned that if you laugh at a teacher’s corny jokes, they’ll love you forever. I will always be the bossy science lab leader. And in Rogate I’ve learned more than I can put into words.

That’s not to say I haven’t learned a lot in each of these subjects. But the experiences I’ve had in them sometimes seem to outweigh learning how to construct an open-ended response. I can’t wait for college when I’ll be able to take courses that I’m truly interested instead of having to think, Oh I guess I’ll learn that next year. I still haven’t figured out how to look attractive while eating a burrito, so I guess that’ll be a goal for high school.