What makes YOU happy?

In honor of today's celebration: International Day of Happiness, I decided to make a list of 10 things that make me happy. Why? Lately, I've been watching the news and seeing so many people do bad things because they're not happy with their lives. 

Just this week my beautiful alma mater UCF went through a terrible scare that had me stop and think for a bit. 

Life is not perfect. Then again if it was, it be a little too boring. We all have our ups and downs and times when we love waking up and others when we want to sleep in and never leave our room.

Days like today though, when we're celebrating happiness, we should really stop to think what makes us happy. 

Why not write it down? Once I write this list, I can go back to it on days I feel a little blue and remind myself on why living is so important and why life, even at it's most imperfection, is still beautiful and filled with happiness.

Here we go:

1. Food makes me happy. There's nothing better than getting home from a long day and have a warm plate of mom's food ready for you. If mom isn't there to cook, a delicious gooey pizza pie with Blue Bell neapolitan ice cream will do the trick! 

2. Sleeping makes me happy. And if it's in your own bed...even better. I've noticed that you could be sleeping at the nicest places in the world, but there's nothing like wrapping yourself up in your own cozy bed.

3. Family makes me happy. Even if they drive you insane about 95% of the time, you know that at the end of the day your family will be there supporting you and loving you. And don't think it has to be a big family, sometimes smaller families have a stronger bond.

4. Loving someone makes me happy. This can be your friend, your boyfriend, your family or who ever. That moment when you unconditionally offer your heart to someone is simply an amazing feeling.

5. Being loved makes me happy. It kinda sounds like the one above, but this time you're that special someone to that person. Again, this doesn't have to be a romantic feeling. You can be loved by your dad, your aunt, your professors and friends.

6. Learning new things makes me happy. Finding out that I don't know something is the best adrenaline rush I can get (unless is how to solve a math problem or do my taxes, that I'll skip). I constantly try to learn new things because my philosophies are: 1) It's not like your brain has an "only fill up to here ^" and 2) You never know what you don't know until you don't know it. 

7. Helping others makes me happy. As cliche as it may sound, helping others really does make me happy. Do I help everyone out? No. I try to help those who seek help and need help and especially those who are appreciative of your help. And this doesn't have to be financially, you'd be surprised how much you can help a person by just talking to them or listening.

8. Dancing makes me happy. Anyone who knows me has realized that I can't stand/sit still when music touches my ears. It may be the Latina blood burning inside that makes me swing from side to side or at least bop my feet if I must remain subtle.

9. Traveling makes me happy. This kinda ties in to some of the things above, because when I travel I get to check things off this list. There's so much more to this world than the fenced backyard we see when we wake up or the same people we greet at work. The whole world is our backyard and we should try to greet everyone who lives in it.

10. Finding my purpose in life will make me happy. BAM! So this one a tough one because I'm still trying to figure that out, however, I know that if I attempt to include the above items on my everyday life, finding my purpose in life will be one happy journey!

Now it's your turn to make a list! If what you're doing right now isn't helping you check off items of that list everyday, think about what you can do to make your life a little happier. 

Don't forget to smile...it's contagious!

Paula
xOxOx

Lights, camera, pixie dust...5AM Wake Up Call??

It has come to my attention that ever since I started my internship at Walt Disney World, a lot of people have been wondering what is it exactly that I do. My only guess is curiosity sparked once I started posting pictures of myself with my Disney friends on my Facebook Page. And by Disney friends I mean Mickey, Minnie, Donald, you know, the big guys in the bizz. lol So I went back and looked at my page, then I thought: "Wow my job looks AWESOME!!!"

To be quite honest, my job really is awesome. I mean, who can say PART of their job is to meet and take pictures with the stars who make Disney magic real? But like I just said, this is only part of my job. You could say it's the glamourous side of it. 

The part you don't see on Facebook is that all of these pictures are taken before even parks open in the early morning. In Florida summer, this means humidity at its finest (for us ladies, it means: AAAAHHH!!!!) 

With that being said, I ask you to take a second look at these pictures and notice what I now call my "Disney bun" style (you can find it in all different ways. Maybe I should start a Pinterest board). lol In other words, it's the only style in which I can somehow manage my morning Mufasa hair. 

But going back to the part of my job that you don't see is that I get to meet these characters because I'm usually working on TV show productions or photo shoots that are done very early in the morning and sometimes take long-hour days and weekends to produce. If you saw the amount of hard work and dedication that go into all of these you'd be impressed. 

But all of the hard work that at least I put into each of my projects is very much worth every minute of my time. The people I have met in the little time I've worked here have been some of the most awesome people ever, and they come from all over the world and from all different backgrounds. 

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if you really enjoy what you're doing every day, it doesn't really seem like it's work (of course, working at Disney sure helps a lot). But find that one thing you love to do and give it your 110%. I promise you, all the time and effort you put into it will seem like you're just having a blast. Maybe your thing is teaching, or solving cases, or even playing music for a living. 


All I'm saying is forget about what every one else is up to and concentrate on enjoying what you do. In the end, the only person you need to make happy is yourself and only YOU can do that. :)

Pau
xOxOx