and having a job that is WAY better than I deserve.

What makes me happy now, is teaching. I worked very hard to get my degree to teach Elemntary school.
And since January I have been teaching at an Elementary school and a High school for kids with behavioral problems and learning difficulties.

It is the most rewarding job you can think of. I love sharing my knowledge with them, and to provide a safe environment for the kids in which they can be curious and explore. It’s the little things that are the most rewarding. Children are the most honest beings on earth, and their appreciation is real.
And if you think troubled teens aren’t grateful? You just have to put your ego aside, and learn to read between the lines. It’s there!

The thing that’s making me happiest today though is knowing I have a new adventure starting. I’m leaving nowhere, Ontario, Canada, to head back to China. Wooooot!

Sometimes coding, too.

This morning a complete stranger genuinly smiled at me while was waiting on my bicycle at the trafficlights.

Some years ago I asked a kid of then 7 years old why he was always so relaxed, happy, smiling, even with parents that had dissapeared in a raid by rebels and every day hunger and sickness and violence in the camp where he stayed. How did he do that. With all the wisdom some kids of that age can have, he told me that at the end of the day, he tried to remember what good things had happened to him that day- even in the things that perhaps at first glance were bad. And so he always slept well and he always woke up smiling and he knew that the future always would be better.

I’m over 40, but I’m still completely amazed about such wisdom of a kid in such utterly harsh circumstances. Since then I completely stopped complaining about anything…

I stopped watching the news years ago, to save my own mental health. Good for you !

This is a great thread, and now I’m doubly happy to be made famous on Neatorama’s front page!

I’d like to thank (insert sycophantic Oscar speech here).

(I also noticed that not reading the newspaper (nor watching the news) often makes me happier on a general level)

My three best friends planning out an entire vacation for Spring Break for me simply because I had never been to a beach before!

Being the only one of my friends to get kissed on vacation (even though I’m not the pretty one!)

College classes being over next week leaving me with a few well earned As. And a C, but hey.

Thank you for this string! I was in a rather foul mood with finals and everything, but reading your stories and sharing mine makes me realize the life is, after all, pretty darn good!

Anything cute will always cheer me up. Specially cute animals.

Fart/Poop jokes….. I’m still a kid at heart lol.

Laughing about something completely stupid with my hubby.

Bonus if there’s plans implemented to apply them at low cost!!!

Where to begin… I live on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. About three years ago, I acquired an old 40 foot long wooden commercial fishing boat. It once belonged to my grandfather, who built it in the 1940′s and used it to earn a living for himself, my grandmother, my father and his brothers. The boat was sold in 1967 to another fisherman. I found it, quite neglected and forlorn. Of course I bought it, had it towed to our home harbor and began to fix it up. The engine was missing. Someone had sold it. I found a duplicate replacement. I wasn’t running… I rebuilt it this past winter. We installed it yesterday. We put fuel in the tanks today. I started it up this morning. We left the harbor this afternoon. The sun was out. The engine muttered along. It was perfect.

As we were coming back into our home harbor, I suddenly realized that I had save my grandfather’s boat. It’s going to be alright. It’s back in the family where it belongs. I became so profoundly happy, I wept.

Cheers;
Bruno.