identify 100 things that make me happy (besides money)

Nothing quite like breezing along on the highway when you see bumper to bumper traffic on the other side of the rail.

It’s free cone day today which means free Ben and Jerry’s ice-cream! I love free food, from samplers to gimmicky events like this. To top it off, free cone day is for a good cause! Each Ben and Jerry’s chooses a charity and people have the opportunity to donate money. There’s no pressure to but it just makes me want to donate the money I’d be spending on the cone and more! Yay free ice-cream, yay great causes!

For those of you who live at a college with limited parking or maybe an apartment complex with only street parking, you will understand the joy of getting that front row and center parking spot. At my school, there’s a tiny parking lot with only three rows of spaces right across the way from my dorm, and then there’s another lot with 10 times the number of spaces about 10 minutes walk away from my dorm.

Imagine my situation: you’re coming back from a party off campus, it’s 3 o’clock in the morning, frigid cold, and you’re wearing a skirt and a ridiculously thin coat. The drive back is filled with dread, knowing the chances of getting a spot in that infinitely more convenient parking lot is slim to none, meaning you’ll be faced with the prospect of braving the damnation that is western massachusett’s winters.

LO AND BEHOLD, A SPOT! AT 3AM! WHAT LUCK! RELIEF AND HAPPINESS SPREAD ACROSS YOUR ENTIRE BEING, realizing now you will only suffer 1 minute of the cold opposed to those horrible 10-15. Ah simple pleasures…

Listening to music is one of my favorite ways of relaxing. Hearing a succession of your favorite songs has a way of lifting your spirits, make you sing out loud, and brightens your day. It’ll calm you down or pump you up. I love listening to this one particularly mellow playlist in the morning while eating breakfast after doing some yoga. It makes the rest of the day seem so much more bearable and less stressful.

Or more specifically, the feeling I get after cleaning my room. Everything is in order, clean, and fresh. The reason why I think of this now is because my room is in such a huge disarray, I’m looking forward to having it nice and clean.

I really love waking up early, just as the sun’s coming up and having the full day ahead of you. You get to eat breakfast, enjoy the sunrise as well as the briskness of a cool morning. Everything seems so much more possible when you wake up early – it makes you feel so productive and refreshed.

By yourself or with a friend, in the city or at the beach, it’s always nice to stretch your legs and enjoy your surroundings. Gives you time to think or clear your head, either way you come back refreshed.

I love the first snow of the season. It’s the sign that winter has finally come and the holidays are around the corner. And while they can at times be a hassle when it’s a huge storm, after the storm has passed and you see the world blanketed in white, it really is a site that’s just beautiful.

There’s a feeling of peace and unity when everything is covered by that blissful layer of snow and things just seem so much more… harmonious.

I cannot even begin to tell you how much I love naps. Especially in the life of a college student – imagine: you just finished a 20 page paper in 48 hours. Your brain feels like it’s going to explode and your back is still in its hunched position from sitting in one position too long and your eyes are bloodshot and dry from staring at a computer screen all night and day and night and day. You’re feeling slightly delirious but oddly alert. Then… you see it. Oh, the glorious sight of your bed and that first sink into your pillow is heaven. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I love naps… and then I get up again in an hour and go to my 1 o’clock class.

Oh, and don’t forget about power naps. Those fifteen minutes of rest can do wonders!

Laughing, talking, stories, pajamas, vegging out, ice cream, hot tea, pizza, pillows and, oh yeah, memories. It’s something that I thought would play out in middle school but it never did and I don’t think it ever will… except when I get married haha (but that’s an entirely different kind of sleepover!) and until then, it’s nice to have your best friend(s) there with you.