As the middle of the semester gets closer, the struggle always seems to get tougher. Spring break isn’t until another two weeks. Most of your midterm exams are next week. Which makes this week just a whole bunch of studying, so you don’t fail them all and can actually enjoy your week off. So close, yet so far, and it’s easy to let all of the overwhelming college stress get in the way of all the opportunities to be optimistic.
I was making my way toward the door of Poe Hall the other day, and I was focused on leaving class as fast as possible to get to my next class on time with a few extra seconds to scarf down my granola bar lunch between the middle of my five back-to-back classes on Thursdays. Even on days without tests or rain showers, it doesn’t take much for me to get stressed out.
As I turned the corner after descending the staircase, I took a few steps and looked up to find the door already open. I was a good distance back, but a student ahead saw me coming and took an extra five or 10 seconds out of his day, just to save me a couple seconds. I’m perfectly capable of opening a door, but with a heavy backpack and a hundred other thoughts on my mind about this assignment and that homework, it was touching to know that someone I didn’t even know decided to help me out. I don’t know your name, Mr. Door Holder, but if you’re reading this: Thanks again.
When I approached the next door, I made sure to hold it open for the next person. It was that awkwardly distanced wait where you never know if you should hold it open or not. But someone did it for me, so I didn’t hesitate to pay it forward for someone else. I felt great when someone helped me, and I felt even better when I helped someone else. Two awesome feelings, and all it took was two doors.
Without a doubt, this same experience happens all the time. But there’s no reason why it shouldn’t happen every time. From cars slowing down to let me cross the streets of campus — let’s be honest, they definitely don’t all yield to pedestrians — to a wave from the kid on campus that you only know from seeing the back of his head in a lecture hall, can all brighten your day, no matter how small the acts of kindness are.
It makes smiling just a little easier on the days where you forget how powerful a smile can be. A happier you makes a happier everyone else. Smiles are contagious. Seriously, how many times have you found yourself smiling for no reason other than because someone else was? As I learned in my interpersonal communication class, how you interpret behaviors affects the way you feel. If you smile and acknowledge that as being happy, guess what? Happy is exactly what you’re going to feel. It might not be a lot, and it might not affect you instantly, but with enough effort to change your mood, I promise it’ll work. So make yourself smile. Make other people smile.
Of course exciting events like earning an A+ on a midterm in your hardest class, or scoring tickets to a concert at PNC, will leave you feeling happier than usual. But that door you didn’t have to open when your hands were full with books as you were about to drop your Port City Java coffee never fails to make your day better. Because for the most part, it’s the little things.
