The Happy Shirt

Recently, my daughter and I were in a chain retail store for young girls.  I was somewhat annoyed as we were running behind for an event and I really just needed to return a shirt that fell apart after the first washing.  As I got up to the counter, a young gal at the register said, “we have these t-shirts for sale, buy one get one free…and it really looks like you could use one.”  The beautiful, bright yellow t-shirt had a HUGE smiley face on the front and on the back said, “Forty Reasons to be Happy”.

In an instant, I realized that although I had many more than forty reasons to be happy, I wasn’t taking the time to appreciate many, if any of them, that day.

They didn’t have one in my size, but I still bought two, one for my daughter and one for her to give to a friend.  A few of the reasons to be happy according to the Happy Shirt:

1. Cartwheels
2. Running
3. Pom-poms
4. Sno-cones
5. Bubble gum
6. Monkeys

When we arrived home and took the shirts out of the bag, my daughter asked me if we could make our own list of 40.  We took turns and came up with the entire list in about 5 minutes.  A few that Abby and I came up with:

1.  A nice home
2. Guacamole
3. Our crazy cat, Yuki
4. Sushi
5. Travelling
6. Our crazy family (yes, we have recognized and embraced that we are surrounded by crazy)

Our conclusion? If we could come up with 40 reasons to be happy in minutes, we must have thousands (maybe millions!) of reasons to be happy.  And we both decided just making the list made us super happy!

About the Author : Wendy Ballast, Human Resources Manager

Wendy has been a member of the J.M. Wilson Team since 2005 and serves as the Human Resource Manager.  She oversees all human resource functions including, but not limited to, recruiting and retention, benefits administration, policies and procedures, employee relations, and payroll.  Wendy loves that every day is different.  She loves to travel and is fortunate that she is able to do so, and get paid for it! In her free time (if she has any!), Wendy serves on three Volunteer Boards; enjoys reading with her daughter, Abby; volunteers with the Parent Teacher Organization at her daughter’s school; plays golf; and travels with her husband, Dan.

Connect with Wendy on LinkedIn!

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