My Happy List

Before I dive into this post, I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you who reached out to me after my last post. I wasn\’t expecting the outpouring of love and support, but I appreciate it so much. I feel very loved, so thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I want to make this week\’s post a little lighter than last week, so I am going to make a list of things (in no particular order) that make me happy. I like to do this from time to time especially when I am feeling down. It helps to remind myself that no matter how bad things get, or how upset I am feeling, there are plenty of things still worth looking forward to.

1.       The first thing that makes me happy is dogs. All dogs, any kind, any size, they\’re all awesome. My German Shepherd, Zeus, is especially special. I only get to see him a few times a year since he lives with my parents, but I cherish the time I do get to spend with him. Whenever I am home, I spend a lot of time catching up on snuggles and attempting to teach him new tricks. Nearly four years later, and we\’ve almost mastered “sit.” He’s very, very stubborn, but like my dad says: “at least he’s cute.” Someday, when I am no longer living in an apartment and moving every other year, I’m going to have my own dog. I’ve always dreamed of having my own husky, and someday I’ll make that a reality. I can’t wait!!

2.       Second on my list, is my family. I wrote a whole post about how special they are to me, but that doesn’t mean I can’t say it again. God Bless my parents who have shaped me into the woman I am today, and putting up with my random daily texts that mostly come out of boredom. Thanks for humoring me and entertaining me, even for only a few moments. My siblings make me super happy too, and together we have shared so many memories through family vacations and sports, and so much more. Many of my happiest memories come from all of the family vacations we have taken together throughout our lives. Now that I am older and live away from them, the family vacations are far less frequent, and the trips are usually me just going home to see them. Which I enjoy immensely, but another family trip to Disney World in the near future wouldn’t be the worst thing either. 😉

3.       Next on my list, is my boyfriend, Nathan. He’s been my constant companion throughout the last four years, and we’ve been on many crazy adventures together. It makes me happy that he’s the first and last smiling face I see every day, even though he’s barely functional until he’s been awake for at least an hour. He’s very supportive of the things I do, and helps me keep my head on when things don’t go my way. I’m also thankful that he’s patient with me, because I can be a handful. I love joking around with him and making fun of him, and he just makes me very happy.  I look forward to what else life has in store for us, and I’m excited to see where we will go next.

4.       South Dakota is next. That might surprise some people since I was so ready to leave after high school. But South Dakota is where I grew up, and although not all memories are good, the good definitely outweigh the bad. That’s where almost my entire family lives, and is home to one of my all-time favorite places: the Black Hills. I LOVE the Black Hills. If I ever move back to South Dakota, it’ll more than likely be west river. I love how open and spaced out everything is, and the mountains and wildlife are just breathtaking. Some of my favorite vacations would be when we rented a cabin out in Hill City, where there was no internet, cable, nothing, and we had to entertain each other and enjoy the outdoors. I loved it, absolutely loved it, and the memories of those trips always bring a smile to my face. I would definitely love to go rent a cabin out there again sometime, and would love to bring Nate this time too (I’ll wait to tell him there’s nothing to play video games on until we get there).

5.       Then of course Virginia/Washington D.C. has to be next. I don’t love everything about the city life, but it’s where I have really learned to take care of myself and get my foot out into the adult world. I have many, many friends here that I couldn’t picture my life without, even though some are starting to break my heart and move away (you know who you are!). A lot of firsts have happened out here in VA: my first apartment, my first big girl job, first time working on a farm, first NASCAR race, etc. etc. I feel like I have really grown up having to come to an entirely new state and figure things out on my own. Nate’s parents also live in VA, and going down to visit them on the farm is always a nice break away from the city. I love to spend time with them, and even though we work on the farm quite a bit while we are down there, we make time to do fun and relaxing things as well. They’ve shown me places like Colonial Williamsburg, Montpelier, Monticello and so many other really cool things around Virginia. I cherish the memories that I’ve shared with them, and I can’t wait to make more.

6.       The final thing on my happy list is swimming. I don’t think I’d be a very happy person at all if I didn’t have something like swimming to take all my frustrations out on. Everything about swimming makes me happy. It is a great form of exercise, it is a great way to make new friends, it has been one of the main reasons I have traveled to all the places I have been, and like I said, I’d have a lot of pent up anger if I didn’t go take it out on the water. I could go find other ways to release my frustrations like running or weight lifting, but neither are nearly as fun as swimming. I’m also pretty mediocre at running and weight lifting, and not to toot my own horn, but I’d say I am slightly above average at swimming so it also makes me feel good when I can keep up with really fast swimmers. I don’t compete nearly as often as I used to, but when I do it gives me something to look forward to and work for. I have a swim meet coming up next weekend, and I signed up for all the 25’s and could not be more excited to swim 25’s in a meet. I didn’t start competing until I was 11, so I never got to swim 25’s in a meet when I was little, and I’m pretty excited to get to do it now!!

To be honest, I could go on and on about a million little things that make me happy, but that would probably get boring. These are definitely the big things, and things I think about every day. All activities and people and things mentioned above are what keep me going, and without them my life would be pretty miserable. What are the things that keep you going? The people who you think about at least once every day? I want to know what makes you guys happy! Leave me a comment, send me a message, talk to me in person, doesn’t matter. I want to spread the happiness any way I can. I look forward to hearing from all of you!

Until Next Time 🙂

Megan Reiffenberger