"Your One Day Notice" by Wayne Bow

Our lives are riddled with choices. I think that people forget that one of those choices is happiness. Every day is full of opportunities to be happy and to smile, you just have to notice them. Sometimes it only takes one day to change your entire perspective on life. Throughout our daily routine in which we submit ourselves to the conveyor belt, we are so focused on the bigger events that shape our lives that we miss the most beautiful things that the world has to offer. After all, it’s the little things that make us smile.

Notice the clear blue sky that strikes brilliance into our eyes with just a few smudges of white wisdom that just make the day better. Notice how blue a friend’s eyes are and how they always seem to send tranquil chills through your bones. Take note of the small flecks of green that are scattered throughout, resembling freshly cut lawn shavings floating on the surface of a pool at noon. Notice the faithfulness of a parent, and how you can always trust them to rise up like the sun every morning and warm you up with just a smile and a hint of love.

I don’t need a magic 8-ball to predict my future and shake up my choices. I don’t need wealth to buy luxurious goods. I don’t need to rely on any source of materialistic goods that will eventually consume me with addiction. I choose to find all the finer things in life; the smaller, seemingly insignificant events within our daily routine. I choose to seize the opportunity to smile every chance I get and share happiness with all who welcome it. I think it’s high time that the world focuses on the smaller details.

Notice the pure joy that occurs when the room is filled with laughter, like a warm breeze that exclusively visits the beaches with the softest sand. Notice the different faces that cars make on the highway with their rear lights and the buttons on their dashboard, resembling a modern art painting at a gallery where only the most distinguished and notable people can attend, including you. Consider the few letters in the mail that aren’t bills, but messages from dear friends and families jumbled in an array of assorted stresses.

Life can throw all sorts of things at you that you can’t control. But we have control of our eyes and we choose what we observe and notice. I propose a “one-day notice”, where you search for anything and everything that brings a smile to your face for an entire day. Be sure to write everything down on a list. You’ll be surprised with how much you smile when you’re looking for a reason to.

"If I was a Flower" by Adrenaline

If I was a flower I would sit around all day and soak up the sun. I would stand tall as the sun washed over my petals and down my spine. It would be as if my eyes were closed, laying on the cool grass. I would be absolutely content, if I was a flower.

I would sway as monster-sized raindrops fall gently on my leaves. I’d soak up the water, drink it down with open... “arms”. I would suck it in through my roots, feel it climb up my stem, spread into my leaves, and fuel me for my days of relaxation. If I was a flower, I would be serene.

If I was a flower I would have no real worries. I wouldn’t think about school or grades. I wouldn’t think about what college I could get into or what would be my major. I wouldn’t think about how I would make money to afford college. How could I pay my debts? How could I find a real job? None of that would matter, if I was a flower.

If I was a flower, I would have a lot of flower friends. We would never fight. If I was a flower, no one would steal boyfriends. No one would talk behind backs. No one would be fake or mean or rude. If I was a flower, life would be bliss.

If I was a flower, I would have been born of a seed. I would have grown up on my own. No reliance on parents for money, rides, a home and food. I wouldn’t need to be with my parents. We wouldn’t be constantly fighting. I wouldn’t have to come back, every time I walk away. I wouldn’t even have to walk away. I would just be gone, if I was a flower.

If I was a flower I would soak up the rain as well as the sun. I would have no worries. I would have a bunch of friends, no drama included. I would never have fights with my parents.

I would be utterly happy, if I was a flower.

"Content" by Percival Brendan Noble the Third

Outside, it is raining and cold and gloomy. Parents are dragging their whimpering, half-asleep toddlers to dim sum with the grandparents. People jam themselves into the bus shelter, waiting impatiently for the bus to arrive. An unsuspecting pedestrian shouts indignantly as a car drives over a puddle and splashes him.

There is a cramped, hole-in-the-wall bookstore on the corner of 6th Avenue and Clement Street in San Francisco. The bookstore is quiet except for the shuffling of boxes being unpacked, the creaking of the wood floors, and the plitter-platter of the rain against the roof. The only voice is the polite greeting at the door, or the hushed but excited whispers from one friend to another. The air smells of aging, dusty books. The cookbook area downstairs is a bit too warm, but the psychology section upstairs a bit too drafty. The shelves are packed, books pushed into the shelves every which way.

Despite all its flaws and imperfections, this is my environment; this is my home. The flaws make it real. Without the overly pristine feel of regular chain bookstores, I can truly relax and enjoy the store. Walking into the bookstore, I hop into a bubble. I walk around, sipping my tea, and reading book reviews by the employees. The stresses of life evaporate, and nothing by the stories and I exist. My mind is blank as I meander around, ready to jump into the worlds contained in the pages of the old leather-bound novels. Pulling a book from the shelf and settling into a lumpy sofa, I enter completely different world.

The bookstore sells used books. Used books have withstood the test of time. It's warming to know that I am about to connect with the thousands of other people who have read and learned from the same books. If generations after generations of people have read the books, it's still going to have relevance in years after mine. I can picture myself speaking to the people of the future about books we've both read. The best thing this bookstore does with some of its used books is placing them in a cart outside the store. People can stop by and leave books or choose new ones to read for free. The casual system is different from a library's strict schedules and fines. It lets me feel like I'm holding a glimpse of someone's life in my hands.

This bookstore is a gift, an opening to endless opportunities. I have control. There is so much I can absorb. I can read whatever I want, whatever my curiosity pushes me to read. I can read more into Pavlov's experiments with his dogs, or a priest's life in pre-apartheid South Africa. I can learn how to take an mp3 player apart and put it back together so that it still works. The bookstore provides a break from normal, everyday life. The books change me from a first generation daughter of Asian immigrants living in the 21st century to a knight of the Round Table, a Death Eater, a teacher in one of Brazil's favellas, a kite runner in Afghanistan, a scientist dealing with moral controversies, or a parent living in a dystopian future.

The books force me to keep an open mind, to walk into a book without expectations or assumptions. Stories that are based in alternate universes that have different social norms invite me to see the world in which I live in a different light. The bookstore introduces novels that challenge my beliefs. I can read from the viewpoint of a male character with heavily misogynistic thoughts. Reading novels that challenge my beliefs either strengthen them or offer a different side that I didn't see before.

The bookstore on Clement Street is an odd place to find contentment. But, given the chance, it can be better than any tropical paradise.