The Emily Approach

Have you ever met anyone that is just all-around happy? Someone that always has a smile on their face and a compliment on their lips. Someone who can make the worst situation the best. I know a few.

I'm very lucky to have tons of amazing role models in my ward and neighborhood, but today I'm going to talk about a specific lady in my life.

You guessed it: Emily.

Emily is by far the happiest person I know. She's always bouncing around, beaming like a little kid on Christmas morning. And when you're around her, you can't help but be happy also. It's a domino effect.

You're probably thinking, "Yeah. She's happy. Big whoop." But seriously. She's not just happy, she's delighted. She's chipper. She is gleeful.

Here's an example:

Once, she was over at my house talking to my mom. My mom was telling her about the laundry room renovations she was planning on doing someday. After she was done describing her plans, Emily looked at her with a huge grin and said,

"I just love knocking down walls. And renovating. And picking out paint colors. I love getting messy! It's just so fun!"

Who loves knocking down stuff?! Emily does.

And I just love that whenever anyone is around her, they can't frown. She's too light and cheerful. And I absolutely love that. I love that she gets excited about anything, big or small. So I've hatched a plan.

I'm calling it, The Emily Approach.

In this particular plan (which I have already been doing for a day and will report on in a minute) I will be striving to be like Emily. I will try to be happy about everything, and take lessons away from everything. I will try to be clean in what I expose myself to. I am going to smile all day. I am going to be grateful for what I have and try not to ask for unnecessary things.

So I'd like to report day one:

I thought of this plan the night before, so I woke up feeling ready to be happy! This was on Saturday. I got out of my bed and came upstairs to find the world covered in a beautiful blanket of snow. I was already excited about that. I do love snow. And then my mom said we were going to the mall. To look for mattresses. Not so excited about this one, but I did want to get out of the house, so I got dressed and off we drove. I got carsick on the way there, but I did not throw up! I was happy about that! But my happiness was tested on the car ride, where I learned that when we go to Florida, we're probably not going to Disney World, because we can't afford it.

I'll admit. I shed a few tears. Disney is my complete life and that was the part that I was looking forward to the most. I felt bad for myself. And I knew this is where my plan was going to have to save me. So I quickly dried my eyes, and thought about how I was lucky to even go on a vacation. I can go to the beach, or swim in the pool and I still get to go to Harry Potter World. I had no room to complain. None at all. And I'm only fifteen, I still have plenty of time to go to Disney World. It'll all be okay.

The next time my happiness was tested was at Macy's. I saw this sweater. This beautiful sweater. But then I reminded myself that I wasn't going to ask for anything. Because I am grateful for what I have. So I took a deep breath, pulled my own sweater that I was wearing around me tighter, and walked away.

Soon, my mom and grandma were busy in their own little world of shopping, and I was determined not to ask for anything. Not one little thing. I have enough clothes, and I don't need anymore. But it got really hard with my mom and grandma showing me all these items, so I decided to walk around the mall by myself just for fun.

This part was hard too. I got a lot of weird looks. What teenage girl goes shopping by herself? A loser? A loner? Does she smell bad? The answer is no. So whenever I was met with a weird look, I returned it with a smile, which got me an even weirder look.

And after walking around for a while, I finally went home, exhausted from my day of being happy.

Stay tuned to see how this works out.


and just for kicks: