Remember to Smile

Take a deep breath.

Close your eyes for a moment.

Now take another deep breath and keep an open mind.

Hear the rhythmic ocean waves crashing on some rocks in the distance while you relax with the warm sun heating your face. Not the intense sun that only feels good for two minutes before we want to immediately retreat to the shade, but the gentle sun that relaxes every part of the body. The type of sun that makes our eyes heavy, puts even the lightest sleepers into a deep slumber, reassures us that everything is going to be all right, and that reminds us that we can take a moment for ourselves and be put at ease.

Don’t forget this feeling.

Don’t forget this day of soaking in this perfect sun that rarely occurs. Don’t forget the sound of the soothing waves that causes us to become so relaxed we can’t tell if we are in a REM cycle or daydreaming.

Above all, when this experience of serenity and peace occur, please never forget to do one VERY important thing. Do not forget to put on sunscreen!

This seemingly perfect scenario, up until the foreshadowed sunburns, happened to me and 2 of my friends almost 2 years ago in Australia. We had been in Sydney for just a few days when we made a trip to Bondi Bay for a beach day. We were experiencing optimal weather and we loved bragging to each other about the fact that we were in bikinis while back home winter was at its peak. We had that perfect sun. The sun we all cross our fingers for every time we go on vacation or plan an outdoor party. We had it! In turn, we naturally took advantage of it by lounging on the beach for several hours.

I hate being sunburned. I reapplied my sunscreen several times because I knew my winter in Pittsburgh had caused my skin to revert back to a blinding white light color. I was not going to get sunburned! I told my 2 companions to do the same. However they, “wanted to get sunburned.” What…? “The first sunburn is the best. It only lasts for a little while and then you have a good base tan.” Blah, blah, blah.

I love my friends and believe it or not, they are extremely intelligent. So I do not know how to explain this logic of theirs about, “loving the first sunburn.” If you two are reading this, you know I love you! But please…. sunscreen is your friend!

Let’s take a step back and think about this perfect sun again. The relaxing one that is not too hot. As a warning, it also has effects of temporarily turning one’s common sense off. For instance, if one were to take off their sunglasses and close their eyes; consequently, their eyelids are now exposed to the sun. Again, we were outside for a few hours. You can guess what happened next.

Yep. The three of us tried to walk around the beach; one looking like a lobster, one like a tomato, and one like a clown that forgot to take off their very bad eye shadow. Next stop? The nearest place that sells aloe vera!

At this point I could say I was pretty annoyed with my friends, but I have this knack of getting over things pretty quickly. Why let something ruin our day? The way I see it we can either be miserable or make fun of our friends cringing and walking around like they were practicing to try out to be the infamous wooden doll in “The Nutcracker”. I was not about to miss that opportunity!

I’m going to skip ahead a bit to when we relocated to Cairns (pronounced like ‘cans’ if you were curious). Cairns….. awwww yes, I can repeat that name over and over and it will have the same effect on me as doing yoga for 4 hours straight. Complete zen with the thought of colorful fish and sea turtles swirling around you, softly lit trees towering above you in the jungle at night, the gentle hum of a didgeridoo being played by an aboriginal who is ready to share their culture and dreamtime stories. All wonderful things, but I want to share one specific experience about Cairns. The experience: the power of a smile.

Just in case you are unfamiliar with Cairns, this is the city we can all visit so we can dive the Great Barrier Reef. It’s a beautiful city above the water as well, but unlike Sydney it is not very ‘city like’. Meaning the closest grocery store is about a 25 minute walk away, which isn’t a big deal until you break your bags and lose circulation in your hands by trying to bring a week’s worth of food back to your hostel, and buses don’t stop right outside your place of lodging every 5 minutes to take you in whichever direction you please.

We had to walk about 10 minutes to the nearest bus stop to get to our destination, the Tjapakai Aboriginese Culture Park. My friends and I were very enthralled about learning about the native Australians so this opportunity seemed amazing!

Getting to our desired location was simple, all we had to do to get there was take the 123 (no, that is not a made up bus number for the sake of simplicity) bus at 9:53 to the park, spend a few hours there, and come back. Simple plan, but what would a vacation be without some travel troubles?

I wouldn’t be exaggerating when I say we became famous to the Cairns bus crew that day. First off, we missed the bus because it came a little earlier than expected and we watched it go by from across the street, we were so close to catching it. We didn’t sweat it too much because the next arrival was in another hour. Not an ideal situation, but the three of us had no problem entertaining ourselves by playing “would you rather” and making up hypothetical questions. When I say ‘the three of us’ I actually mean ‘one of us’. My friend has a natural gift for coming up with games and thought-provoking questions, I think it’s impossible to ever be bored around her. During our question-answer session the bus arrived ½ hour early. We were excited at first, until we were informed that this specific 123 bus did not go to our desired stop. No big deal, we just resumed our games. Finally, when the bus came and we told the driver we had to get off at Illawarra Street he let us know we were getting on the wrong bus.

Of course! However, he was very helpful and patient and dropped us off where we needed to be and told us which bus to catch. Lucky for us, the bus we were supposed to get on pulled up directly behind the one we just departed. We were a bit surprised when we told this driver that we had to get off at Illawarra Street and he responded with, “I don’t go there.” What?! Again, we were fortunate to have a very helpful and understanding driver who went straight to his radio to find out which of his mates had our stop on their route. We were a bit confused when he looked back at us laughing. It turns out we were originally on the correct bus, but the driver had “misread my accent” and our stop was indeed on his route. Easy fix, just wait for the next 123 bus to come by. Another hour.

As we were playing the waiting game again the driver we had just been in contact with came back around on his route. He hopped off his bus, looked at us with a big smile on his face and asked, “So which of you girls left your camera on the first bus you were on?” My other friend’s face flushed. The driver let us know that the driver who was supposed to pick us up was on his last round so he would take us to the bus depot with him where we could retrieve the missing item.

Upon arrival at the depot every person we came across either expected us or asked if we got our belongings as soon as they spotted us. When we left the lost and found we passed by a driver who stopped, looked at us oddly for a second, and told this colleague (or should I say mate) while laughing, “I saw these girls 3 hours ago!” He was the driver we met after our first ½ hour of waiting. I wasn’t kidding when I say we were famous!

When we finally made it to the culture park we realized it took us about 4 ½ hours to get there. When we hopped off the bus a couple was getting on and they recognized us. It turns out they were on the first 123 bus we got on and they were the people who found the missing camera! They asked if we found everything OK and were glad we made it, you could tell they were amused by our situation.

Even though the day was long and inconvenient we really came across the most good-spirited people who were willing to help us. We just laughed at the situation, no reason to be miserable.

After our visit to the park we hopped on the bus, the correct bus, and went back to the hostel. Total travel time? 15 minutes. You read correctly, our 15 minute bus ride had taken us 4 1/2 hours. It almost seems as though I’m faking our positive attitude on this day, and yes it had its fair share of frustration, but every single bus driver we encountered just smiled. They were genuine, ready to help, and made that day one we won’t forget. We also learned a couple lessons, don’t forget to double check the bus route and write down where your destination is as a preventive measure of having your accent misunderstood!

A few days later we had to hop on the bus again. We walked our 10 minute journey to the stop, made sure we arrived earlier than the scheduled time for the bus departure, and when the doors to the bus opened the driver looked at us, smiled, and said, “Girls, your sunburns look better!” Unbelievable! It was the same driver who laughed at us about his mate misunderstanding our accent and informed us about the missing camera. That morning we immediately started our day off with a laugh. I guess those ‘first sunburns’ had some good attached to them after all.

One more quick story, then you can continue on with your day!

On Christmas Eve, still in Cairns, we went on a Jungle Tour. We were picked up at our hostel by our tour guide who drove us everywhere. We explored a wildlife conservation where we held a koala, fed kangaroos, and pet an amethyst python’s surprisingly smooth skin. We then traveled further into the jungle where we ziplined from tree to tree and ate amazing ice cream. If all this wasn’t exciting enough we floated on the water while trying to spot some crocs! An amazing day for sure!

On the return trip our guide stopped at an incredible view. We stretched our legs, took in the spectacular scenery, and decided to have a chat with our guide. He was hysterical and absolutely great at his job! The view we were witnessing was not technically part of the tour, but he thought it was worthwhile for us to see. Even on Christmas Eve when he could be going home, he chose to make this group’s day that much brighter. However, I felt some sympathy for him. Didn’t he want to he home instead of driving people everywhere? Especially since the last 1.5 hours worth of driving was him being a chauffeur for a bunch of sleeping strangers. So I asked him, “How do you like your job?” His face immediately lit up as he explained why he loved it. “I get to start each day with 20 happy people,” he said. It was so simple. I was focusing on the monotony and the driving, but in reality he found joy in it. He found joy in others’ happiness even though he had no relations with them. It made so much sense. In my travels thereafter, regardless of where I was exploring, I told my tour guides about this encounter I had and asked if they agreed. Every single one of them gave me some derivative of, “absolutely.” They loved people, they loved spreading happiness, and they loved smiles. To me this seems so selfless an beautiful.

So I have told you, ‘don’t forget’ to do many things during the course of this post. Don’t forget to take time for yourself; don’t forget your sunscreen; don’t forget that, although you may speak the same language, Australians may misunderstand an American accent; but please, above all things, REMEMBER to smile! We are human and we forget to do things, but please remember how easy a smile is to give and how much it may mean to the person receiving it. Your smile could brighten someone’s day; turn a day that, on paper should be frustrating and miserable, but instead is one that is laughed at; and that your smile, the smile of a stranger, could be the reason why someone wakes up and goes to work every morning. You are a person worth smiling at and worth to be smiling about. So please, please, please, remember to smile. 🙂