Submission for Ritona Raito's challenge, My Favorite Reason. I dedicate this card to Ritona--I hope you'll feel better soon! ^^

Image: [link]
Texture: [link ii]

I'm sure most of you have heard people say, "Smiles are contagious." Well, I know from personal experience that it's true. Several months ago, I went to school in a really bad mood. I was tired from staying up until almost midnight the previous night finishing a project, and I had a small headache. And to top it all off, I was peeved at my friends for just a little tiny reason. But like I said, I was tired a grumpy.

Then I was dragging myself to through the crowded hallways all alone when a girl I hadn't talked to in a long time, just a classmate from a previous year, smiled and said hi to me. And that made me feel a whole lot better. Not because I was tremendously good friends with her or anything. Not because I wasn't talking to my friends then. But because even after all these years, this girl, just a classmate, smiled at me. And that smile was contagious. Without thinking, I smiled back at her, the happiest, truest smile I've had since waking up that day.

And now, I try not to be such a downer and I smile at people. A lot. I smile at my friends, my family, my teachers, you name it. I try to infect the virus of happiness others around me with just one simple smile. And smiling not only makes others happy, it makes me happy too.

I think that smiling and spreading the happiness around is a beautiful thing, because there needs to be more happiness in this world. And that is my favourite reason for smiling. To make others feel the gift of happiness, and to feel it myself as well.

(And wow, I didn't mean to write too much because it might be a hassle reading all this...)