just be happy anyways

i remember a day when i was in like the 4th grade. pokemon had just hit the United States, and it was kind of a big deal- who am i kidding- it was a HUGE deal. i don't think that anyone in our generation can deny that. the tv show was awesome, the game boy game amazing, and even girls collected the cards. it was the totally the bomb. the bob-omb, if you will.

so one day one of the neighborhood moms had went and got some packs of cards for her kids and she gave me a couple packs. she told me to keep one and run over across the street and give another to one of the neighborhood kids. so i went ahead and did that. i opened up my own pack and found none other than a rare ninetales- a pretty strong fire-type that's hard to come by. YEAH! bob-omb, right? totally. that is until later that day when the other kid opened his pack and rocked everyone's world.

so close.

OHMYGOSH!! CHARLIE GOT A CHARIZARD!!

all the sudden he was the coolest kid in the neighborhood. just like that. my friend next door and i were like-- really?

in truth, my little body had mustered all the 10-year-old jealousy that it could. i couldn't believe it. it could have been mine! i had both packs, but i kept the one with the blastoise wrapper and not the epic fire-type. eesh.

but whatever. it didn't make him cool. i still knew more about pokemon. i still had tons of awesome cards, including an alakazam. so whatever, man!


...whatever..


sigh.





the problem is, now that i'm a "grown-up" (at least according to my nephews) i still see the same kind of silly jealousy around us. at college. among our friends. you do it, i do it, and its too bad.

its no secret that here at BYU everyone is dating-obsessed. to the max. its also pretty clear that a great deal of the students here over-achieved in high school and were the top of their game. both things cause people to get humbled fast. FAST.

the sad thing is that we sometimes get caught in some kind of ditch, where we might think we're not as good as other people or they're better than us.

i realized the other day that many of my friends growing up and from my freshman year are getting married. some have babies. then i try to think of the coolest thing i've done lately and all i can think of is TKO-ing super macho man in the first round without him even landing a punch (its actually a lot harder than it sounds).

well in our dating-crazed culture, sometimes we see those other people getting together and being all happy and we think-- what the crap?? i'm way nicer than him. he's a tool. she's fake. she just wants someone to make out with. she has no idea what she's getting herself into. he's a loser. why can they be happy?

when we do that we sound a lot like a certain jealous 10-year old who didn't get the one silly card he wanted
.

the thing is, getting married is pretty much like finding that charizard. you may open hundreds of booster packs, and all you find is freaking weedles. another gust of wind. oh. great. grass energy. but you keep trying. you keep getting those dang cards. sometimes you come close- you find a blastoise, a venusaur, alakazam, but not a dang charizard. but you keep going. and going. and then, out of nowhere, the kid down the street gets one and you're left wondering what just happened.


i tried the whole bitter thing, and as fun as it is, it really doesn't work. and its fun- especially for someone as sarcastic as i am. but i've found life to be a whole lot easier when you just decide to be happy anyways. so what if others get what you want before you do? good for them. they find that special person? yay them. they get that radical job? way to go. whatever special things are happening to others, its way more fun to just be happy about it. seriously.

so here's to being happy- and here's a big thanks to everyone who works to be happy no matter how good or bad life can be. yall are the real pokemon masters.