Happiness is contagious...sometimes...

This past week was "Open House" in our school district.  The night for my grade level (4th and 5th) was Tuesday night, with the other grade levels happening on various other nights.  There are some who see it as a trivial night, but for me it is a chance to see a lot of parents that I might not get to see otherwise.

On the way home after open house, I found myself drumming on the steering wheel along to whatever song was on the radio.

Now, I am not saying that I'm stodgy, unhappy, or a hermit, but 9 times out of 10, I am an introvert.  In fact, for most of the day, I had a headache, and was stressed about open house because of my "introverted-ness."  However, open house forces me to smile, be happy, and have generally pleasing misdemeanor in public.  Don't get me wrong - I like meeting people, but I am the kind of person that is pretty happy keeping to myself, and doing what needs to be done on my own.  Not the usual music teacher type!  I think part of it comes from growing kind of an only child - my sister was 8 years older than me, and my brother...um...more than that (Sorry, Bill - I can't remember).

But my point is, by the end of the night, after spending 2 hours smiling, shaking hands, answering questions, and the like, I realized that my mood was better, my headache was gone, and I actually felt happier than I had 2 hours prior.

I can't help but think that if, at times, we force ourselves to act happy, sometimes it can actually take root in our psyche and we will actually feel happy.  I guess it's a version of "you decide how you feel."  I definitely believe that we define our demeanors by how we react to the situations we really have no control over.  One of my favorite sayings is "Just because you are in pain, doesn't mean you have to be one!"  There are some people (teachers included) who go through their whole career thinking and believing that they need to be the stodgy-ness in a students life, when really, especially today's students, need a teacher who can show them the joy in life and learning.

Kay.  'Nuff said.