Being Happy Makes Me Happy, It Should Make You Happy Too!

The pumping machine in my compound had packed up and for some reason, my landlord wouldn’t fix it immediately, forcing everyone to draw water from the well at the front of the house.

I had an early shift at work that morning and since we hadn’t had a reason to be out of running water prior to that, no one in my flat had a water reservoir. I grudgingly stood up from my bed, slid into my flip-flops and dragged my sleepy self to the well; an orange plastic bucket in one hand, my phone that served as my radio and torch in the other.

Just as I opened the metal lid on the well, I yawned and my phone slipped. I stood there watching as it danced down the dark hole with the phone’s torch causing the water to glimmer.

Guess what I did?

That’s right. I laughed…

No, I’m not crazy. I just thought it was funny that one second I was listening to a man’s voice casting the early morning news and the next, my phone was sinking deep into the well. The fact that my white earpiece was still dangling in my hand made it even more hilarious.

Later that day, as I was handing over my shift to the next presenter at the radio station, he commented on how he had buzzed me earlier but my line was unreachable.

“Oh, my phone fell inside the well”, I said with a smile.

Everyone present there laughed. They obviously thought it was a joke.

When I asked that same colleague the next day if I could borrow his phone to record a video, he asked what happened to mine.

“I told you it fell inside the well, didn’t I?”

“Wait, you… you were serious?” He asked, confused.

I nodded, again with a smile.

“But how come you are not acting like you just lost your phone?”

I shrugged and went on to record my video with his phone.

The news spread fast like wildfire around the office and I had to repeat to everyone I worked with how my phone had fallen into the well. It was exhausting!

This is typically how I respond to mishaps -by not dwelling on them, especially if there’s little or absolutely nothing I can do to change things. I mean, why sulk over spilled milk, right?

***

“Do you have any problems in your life?” Blessing (her real name), then an intern at the radio station where I worked, who had heard the gist about my phone asked me a few days after the incident.

“Excuse me?” I was taken aback by her question.

“Gelax, why are you always happy? You act like you don’t have any problems in your life and I can’t seem to figure you out”.

My response to that? Of course I laughed.

I would later find out that she had been studying me carefully for days to guage my reaction to the loss of my phone which was what prompted her question.

You see, like anybody out there, I sure have my share of problems. There are times I wet my pillow and feel absolutely unmotivated to leave my bed. But ultimately, I’ve discovered that wallowing in my pain or sorry state only makes me more sad and eventually causes more problems for me (and others).

This is why you will almost always catch me in a happy and bubbly state. Well, except when I’m hungry, of course🤭. But really though, you can bet that 95% of the time, you will find me jovial and high-spirited. It has become a default setting.

And as I mentioned earlier, it doesn’t mean I do not have troubles or low moments. As we say in Nigeria, “Trouble no dey finish”, which means, humans will always have challenges to contend with.

Just think about it, there is always that one more issue to solve, one more obstacle to overcome, a greater height to surmount, etcetera. It’s how we humans and the universe are wired. Our challenges, problems, needs and wants are simply inexhaustible. Hence, I have learnt to pick my battles and only channel my energy to things I can change.

I’m known to randomly start dancing in the middle of the road, wave and blow kisses at strangers from a taxi and spread my arms wide on motorcycles. I hop instead of walk and spontaneously spin at the counter before the supermarket attendant finishes rounding up my bill.

Do you know that I’ve hugged an elderly woman I didn’t know before in an elevator? I high-five people instead of shaking them. I stain my friends’ face with lipsticks and pull their ear for the fun of it.

I like my noodles and spaghetti long and wet so I can roll it round my fork and make a slurping sound while eating it. I prefer my meat/fish with bone because I think it gives my meal a ‘hump’. I like my chips crispy, crunchy or chewy. I mean, why not?

I totally enjoy humming and nodding my head like a puppet, or singing out loud while messing up the lyrics of a song and dancing offbeat.

All these seemingly child-like and silly acts have become second nature to me. They give me a burst of adrenaline rush. They get me as high as a druggie after a dose of narcotics. What’s even better? They make other people smile, chuckle, giggle or laugh.

This right here is my hack to surviving this insanely chaotic world we live in.

I don’t know how else to explain it but, being happy makes me happy.

So, when people ask me, “Why are you so happy?” and I tell them, “I’m happy because I’m happy”  

I actually do mean it.

PS: The phone floated back to the surface and was handed over to me on the day I moved out of that apartment 😅.

This blog post is by Bolaji Gelax, (aka Miss Flowery), a Nigerian Lifestyle Blogger who blogs here.

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