SMILE WHILE YOU STILL HAVE TEETH

So here’s a fun or not so fun fact people. 90% (I’m being nice) of the people you encounter in a day are angry or just frustrated. Well this might be an exaggeration but if we are being sincere and just take a moment to think this through, start from the shop owner down your street to the guy that fills up your tank and oh let’s not forget those super annoying attendees you meet at supermarkets and restaurants. It’s almost like the atmosphere carries layers of exasperation and we all just breathe it in.

Personally, I’ve had my own share of experiences with such people and I can’t count how many times I’ve walked out of a store with the wrong product or nothing at all just because I got scared when the attendee shouted at me. Yes, call me a wimp or a sissy I’ll take it. I remember a day I went to the ATM and the queue was so long, dark skins glistening with sweat as people boiled of impatience. I recall the lady ahead of me having a hard time with the machine and oh God! The shouts and insults rained on her were so alarming. When it got to my turn and I realised I was going to have to withdraw about four times, I chickened out after the first withdrawal when someone made a snarky comment. Well I felt so disappointed in myself because I later had to walk a distance under the blazing sun to find an ATM that had less people.

This was nothing compared to what I faced the first time I travelled on my own as a minor. Picture this, a 14 year old child with about 4 massive boxes and a school bag. I was a mess! But I was unbothered since as a minor I was assigned to an attendee, boy was I wrong. This lady practically shouted at me for being slow and lost me in the crowd. My boxes fell down the staircase and she was nowhere to be found.

I guess this was when it first dawned on me. I couldn’t blame any of these people because I started to picture myself in their shoes. Some of these people had dreams just like we all do and all of a sudden they are the people you call when you want to decide what perfume to pick. But it also challenged me, because I figured in as much as we might not be where we pictured ourselves and hard truth is we might never fully actualise that picture, the key thing is to always find joy in the little things.

Value life in its most petite form, embrace opportunities and live every moment to the fullest. I know this sounds farfetched but the more I see “RIP” signs around the more I realise how little I have focused on things that matter and how much importance I have placed on trivial things. The scariest part is that living in a generation like ours where everyone is dreaming for a future so bright it shames the sun, it’s so easy to overlook details. We forget that a tooth is what multiplies to form a smile. Hey, hit the pause button of your life right now, stretch out your legs, let down your hair, close your eyes and just smile. Smile while you still got teeth, a smile so hot it burns your cheeks.