Smile Again

There is an old saying “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” (although the statement is not true, as there are many fruits more nutritious than apple and we need about 5 servings of different fruits a day to be healthy, it is still a nice statement because of the rhyme). However, I believe that “a smile a day makes everyone’s day” is truer. Not only does one looks better when one smiles, but one also cheers up the others around them.

I woke up from my afternoon nap at about 7.30pm, turned on the television to watch the Birmingham vs Liverpool ‘live’ soccer match. About 10 minutes into the match, I got hungry. As I have gastric problems, I need food pretty urgently. As my wife was not at home, I had to think of settling the dinner by myself. I had to make a decision to forgo watching part of the match and buy dinner or endure till half time to buy dinner. Probably, by then, I would have died. As the game went on, I grew moody. It was 20 minutes into the game.

Finally, I decided that health was more important, as Liverpool wouldn’t notice my absence anyway, so I went to buy dinner. I put on my long face and dragged my feet to the nearest place that sold food, thinking I would miss seeing tons of goals. I stopped at a vegetarian food shop.

When I stepped into the shop, I was greeted with a wide smile by the shop owner, who was having his dinner too (bread and coffee only). Out of courtesy, I returned a smile. What a difference I felt immediately. I felt awake. I felt rejuvenated. I felt happy. After placing my order, we started an interesting conversation. We were still chatting by the time the food was ready.

I returned home to watch the soccer game. It was already in the second half. Score was still 0-0. Seemed like I didn’t miss much. No goals so far anyway. But I was happier. What a difference a smile can make! (Probably, a full stomach helps too. By the way, the match ended 2-2.)