Happiness... a choice?

...I think so.

Of course there are people with chemical imbalances in their brains that this does not pertain to, but in general, I think people choose to be happy or miserable.

I choose to surround myself with people that are happy and create fun in life. How great is making the most mundane things in life fun...like running errands? One prime example that comes to mind is in college we had what we called The Great American Midnight Adventure. In Iowa City, parking is just about as rare as it is in Chicago. You have to alternate the side of the street that you park on every day(unless you are lucky enough to get a spot on the first or second block of Bloomington) and the parking meter maids are VICIOUS. Parking on University property is even worse than just on the Iowa City streets... you have 10 tickets in one year(whether they are paid or not you are still subject to tow). OR you can pay an excessive amount of money to park in a private spot(an option I loved my last 2 years). So, in an amazing discovery my freshman year, we learned that the parking garage behind where I lived didn't employ anyone to take your ticket after midnight and the arm went up automatically and let you out for free. There's a catch though. If you forgot to take your car out and left if in over night...$20 ticket.

So several friends and I stealthly did the parking maneuver everyday and ran our errands in the mornings, put our car in the garage and took it out after midnight. Seems like a pain in the ass? Not really. To make this task more fun, we named it THE Great American Midnight Adventure. It had a theme song that Aaron created, but will not sing it for us to this day. It also included some sort of adventure of getting food or making a run to the 24 hour Wal-Mart or even stopping by to see friends.

So, when you are getting bored with an everyday task, give it a ridiculous name, involve some crazy friends and make it something you look forward to again.