I enjoy smiling. I really do. I was always one of those children who said nothing but always smiled. I, myself now find that quite annoying as I'm not a fan of shy kids, but many people must disagree with me because I found that even though I said nothing everyone loved me. Everyone! Was it because I always appeared to be happy? I don’t know. Perhaps my smile was contagious and it made others smile. As a child that grew up moving from country to country each year because of my dad’s job requiring us to move around a lot, I learnt that smiling was understood by anyone and everyone. I guess everyone smiles in the same language.
I’m not sure when I first got into the habit of smiling all the time, let alone know when my first smile was. (I'm not entirely sure if you could even call it a habit, I may have just been a very happy and naive child. Thank you mum, thank you dad). I hear that researchers now believe that smiling is innate- that blind babies also smile. This makes me happy; it makes me smile.
Thinking back to my high school days I realize I did not do much smiling then. Not sincere smiling, anyway. Could anyone tell? I don’t know. However, I do remember in Year 9 we had a newcomer to our class. Her name was Noor. She seemed nice. Being that we did not know each other for the first few days, whenever she happened to look over in my direction and I in hers, I would smile from my desk then look away. We were soon friends. Years later she would tell me that she thought I was quite odd as all she recalls from our first days of meeting was my constant smiling. What I remember most vividly about my first impression of her was her chavvy hair-do and her obsession with Labello!! But I also found her interesting and intriguing. It’s been 9 years and we’re still best mates.
Several times in the last couple of years the subject of smiling has come up in my city’s newspaper- '7Days'. By my city I mean Abu Dhabi. The capital of the UAE? Where Dubai is? Yeah, now you know where I mean. (That’s why I usually just say ‘Dubai’ when asked where ‘home’ is). It’s where I’ve lived the longest. Anyway, back to the newspaper. There’s a section towards the back where people write in their opinions on the latest and most talked about news. Some ‘missing cat’ letters are squished in there, too. :( That’s where these smile discussions came up. Just last week there was a discussion that went on for several days about waving and being polite to strangers. It made me wonder why anyone cared that they weren’t being waved at or smiled at by airport staff, or by passing strangers in the mall, or by.. etc etc. Why would people care? This made me think and my thinking made me realise that though I couldn't understand it I also like when people smile at me, whether they be strangers or friends. Giving it more thought now, I realise that the reason for this is that a smile makes you feel secure, it makes you understand the environment you’re in better. On a more personal level, a smile is the first impression you may get of someone.
As a 22 year old, I may not have experienced as much as many, but I believe that smiling connects people and this makes people feel good. "A friendly look, a kindly smile, one good act, and life's worthwhile". And so to you I smile.
~Melanie Stones
