5 Things that make me happy

Happy Cinco de Mayo. Here are five things that make me happy, on 5/5. This might not be a movie review, but I hope this inspires you to write about five things that make you happy.

1. I Love my family to the moon and back. They are my rock. My ultimate support system, and they make me smile. I do not get to see my brothers as much as I used to since they have both moved out, but it fills me with joy to see them, always. Seeing my extended family is always so special, but the fact that I have found chosen family throughout my life means so much to me. My mom did the same thing when she was younger, and I have so much admiration and affection for her as a person. It makes me happy to love so much, feel so much love from my parents and my family in general. I feel happy just looking at my mom’s face and my dad’s face. I cherish when I travel with my family, watch movies with them, or even when I get to see them for a few minutes at a time. They are the most important people in my life and I cannot picture where I would be without them. ❤

• I love my cat Nate. He is a black Domestic Shorthair, and I happen to think he is my good luck charm. After everything I have been through in life I am still alive and well, and he is still by my side. I’ve had Nate since he was just a couple months old, and he is 14 now. He is my baby booooyyyyyy and he makes me happy. Having him sleeping at my feet, or right next to my face is so calming. He provides a sense of positivity for me, when I wake up and the first thing I see or hear is him. I like coming home from work and hearing him greet me with a hearty hello or I love you (Not joking). He is so cuddly, funny, and cute, and I love him to pieces.

• Disney makes me happy. I have loved it since I was a child. I grew up watching the Disney classics (Snow White, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast) and I still love them to this day. But it wasn’t until I was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma, back in 2014, that I truly came to understand the solace and comfort that Disney films gave me. I watched Disney animated movies during my chemotherapy infusions, and they truly were what got me through it. When I had to have back surgery in 2017, I made a plan. In my recovery, I would start with the very first Disney animated feature film and watch them all in order. Disney has been there for me whenever I’ve needed it. It provides an escape for me and allows me to connect with something magical and fun. Disney embodies everything that I love, and the stories show the importance of love, family, friendship, and music. I am so passionate about Disney, that my senior capstone project in college was on the evolution of the female Disney character. I’ve even started a movie review blog (the moviefaire.com) to express my love and knowledge of Disney content.  It is my dream is to one day work for the Disney company.

• Music makes me happy. It has been a part of my life since before I can remember. My earliest memories are waking up for school in the morning to hear jazz music playing through the house, and falling asleep as I heard my dad playing through his warmups on the saxophone. Everyone in my immediate family has incredible taste in music. It is so much fun getting to share my favorite music and hear their favorite music. I look forward to gatherings we hold with friends where we gather to play music together. I listen during these events to everyone else, but on the rare occasion I will sing something, with my brothers or whoever is on vocals. Similar to the way Disney makes me feel, music provides an escape for me, something for me to connect to and understand. I like hearing something new every time I listen to one of my favorite songs. The complicated and beautiful layers that go into Broadway and Disney music specifically make my heart swell. I feel so much emotion listening to music, that I know and love, or that I am listening to for the first time. I listened to the first Taylor Swift song that I ever heard the other day, for the first time in at least a decade, and I cried. It was so nice and nostalgic to hear the song again, because she is one of my favorite artists to this day. If I am listening to something new, I try to find a connection or an understand for each song that I listen to. For the most part exploring new songs, or different genres has a positive impact on me. I feel and think of so many different things when I’m listening to music that make me happy.

• Doing Jigsaw puzzles make me happy. I started having an interest in collecting them when I would complete the 100-piece puzzles at my grandparents house. I completed all of them at least twice, and had fun doing them, so I asked my parents for a couple for Christmas. I mostly tack down unique or cool looking Disney puzzles, that either have a nice picture, or have beautiful art. I started with 500-piece ones, then 750. Now I am completing between 1000 and 2000 piece puzzles. I have completed between 40 and 50 puzzles over the past 6 years. I like being able to focus my mind, solve something that can be difficult, and have some fun doing so. There is something so satisfying about seeing the completed picture. It makes me smile and feel a sense of relief and pride, especially if It took a while to complete. I always look forward to picking out the next puzzle to complete, or at least work on!