We Choose Happy!

“Mom, she sounds like you.”

My daughter said to me on a Saturday night last summer as we watched Taylor Swift in concert from the floor of a packed stadium in Santa Clara.

“What do you mean?” I asked. Because, I mean, I love to sing and all, but I own the level of badness that is my singing voice. It’s not pretty. She definitely didn’t mean that, and Taylor was on stage talking to all 50,000 of us about her life, and her songs, and being all amazing, and sparkly, and 25, and awesome.

“She’s so positive Mom. And like, she’s saying to not let things get to you. To just be happy. Like you mom. She sounds like you.”

Insert the mic drop here.

That. THAT. That exact moment. That, is what three tickets that cost more than my rent really bought.

Because, yes, we have crappy moments. Sometimes I lose my cool and say things I shouldn’t. Sometimes she loses her cool and says things she shouldn’t. Sometimes, some really complicated not-so-great times, we both lose our cool and we both say things we shouldn’t and all at the same time and then we throw a pity party contest and drop dirty looks like a supermodel at a cover shoot for a bakery.

We do sassy well.

We aren’t perfect. We don’t always get it right. We do not live amongst the rainbows and fairies in the Enchanted Forest, much to her dismay and my relief.

But, what we do well is love. What we are good at is smiling, forgiveness and. . . shaking it off.

What we do best, in my house, is happy, no matter what.

We choose happy.

And she gets it. My kid.

I stood there with her, dancing at her side for hours and watching the joy light her up inside as she experienced her first concert. She was so so so happy. And so was I.

Even though my feet hurt. Even though I wore a pink sparkly tank top when I could have chosen a t-shirt. Even though getting there and back was an unnecessarily complicated adventure. Even though I walked two miles barefoot at midnight.

I chose happy.

Like I do every day. Like she does every day. Like WE do everyday.

Choose happy. Every day. Always.

Life is too short to be anything else.

Michelle is a mom who works one full time job, has a handful of side gigs and passion projects, one ex-husband, and one brand-spanking-new husband, a devotion to grammatically correct profanity and a commitment to publicly oversharing in the name of personal growth for all. You can follow Michelle on her Blog ICTFD and you can also find her on Twitter and Facebook