People Should Smile More

It’s back!

After much deliberation, writers block and hangovers, Stuff What I Wrote has returned. And as for my disappearance in the first place, it’s not that I didn’t love you (As I did and still do, very much), just that I didn’t want to spout utter rubbish on here. I do love the accomplishment of publishing a very meaningful and well written piece of writing, and wouldn’t have liked my little corner of the internets to be spoilt by un-thoughtful trash.

And so, I return.

Now today, I’m… elsewhere. For the past half week (It’s Wednesday, and I’m here till Friday) I’ve taken a week’s holiday in the rather pleasant Devon countryside, to visit my Uncle Matt’s farm (Well, I say it’s his but it’s still owned by his wife’s parents, but I digress). It’s all very lovely and he has pigs (Which taste lush by the way) and chickens, cows, sheep, a dog, and a family of very intrusive ducks, who seem to think they’re human.

But much as I’d like to sing his praises, I come to you with a bit of a message, as the past day or two seems to have had a bit of a theme, from my perspective anyway.

First of all, an article in a skateboarding magazine which I read yesterday seemed to focus on a matter which I know annoys quite a lot of kids of my age, and that is of course, being stereotyped. Now due to the beyond necessary efforts of the Guardian newspapers, closet racists and bespectacled corner-shop owners, the youth of our country seem to have been blanketed in negative media, forcing the population to generally be quite scared, or even sometimes quite aggressive towards people of our age. I know I’m hardly the most friendly figure to see on the street, at six foot something and dressed in a hoodie, but I find it rather frustrating when I look up to smile customarily at someone who is crossing my path and they are crossing the road to get away from me. It kind of makes me want to wear a big neon sign saying ‘I’M NOT GOING TO MURDER, RAPE OR ROB YOU’.

Now another thing that occurred today seems to relate to the overall topic of this article. As I woke up this morning and went into the front room for breakfast, I noticed someone blabbering, as they do, on the morning news. The topic was happiness, and the subject seemed to be represented by a certain ‘Student of Happiness’. Now, being the person that I am in the mornings (Incredibly groggy) I wasn’t quite sure whether they were actually holding a degree in the subject of eating chocolate, or whether they were a member of some bizarre new cult, but the idea to me seemed rather silly – have people forgotten how to be happy?

So what do I have to say about it? Well I could write lists, pages of advice on how to make the world a better place and generally improve the image of our generation but instead, I will leave you with a song, one that has a clear message, clear instruction, and one that pops up on my shuffle a lot. It’s by a man called Newton Faulkner, and shares the title of this article. Listen to it.

Thank me later Mr. Faulkner.

- Lewis