Happy? Sad? Your choice.

Note: I drafted this post at around July or August 2019. A lot of things have changed since then but I'd like to know that there is still a reason to keep smiling.

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"How do you do it? Stay jolly all the time?"

I really wouldn't have taken that question seriously if it wasn't my boss asking me. According to him, he finds it weird that I can find a reason to smile in one of the most draining industries out there. Advertising.

To tell you the truth, the question caught me off guard. But not so much that I couldn't answer.

It's hard.

To smile is hard. It usually means that you're happy, or glad, or just plain feeling good.

You expect there to be so many positive reasons behind a smile. But to be very honest, it took so many things to get that smile to be what it is today.

It took a lot of pain and struggle to bare teeth at the next job interview.

It took a lot of tears and heartache to grin at the next outing with friends.

It took a lot of incidents and turmoil to beam at the fewest, most exciting things.

The answer I gave my boss earned me a nod of approval:

"I just choose to be happy about everything."

I never went on to explain my tragic backstory or anything like that. I told it like it is. I'm glad he never asked me, too, because then I really wouldn't know how to answer.

But when it came down to it, I can't help but be proud of myself for, well, smiling in the face of adversity.