The power of a SMILE:)

What is a smile? Before I begin.....a smile is a facial expression formed by flexing the muscles near both ends of the mouth(Courtesy of Wikipedia). I am sure alot of you know that there is a difference between fake smiles and real ones right, and most of the time, the telling sign is through the eyes!!!!

As you can tell from my header, I am a proponent of smiles and laughter because to me, it signifies happiness, fun,etc...... Maybe it is the stress of work or traffic jams in KL, but I recently realized that many people don't smile much. Many people don't know the importance of smiling because they probably find it an effort to smile at others, or are just plain tired, or could be a dozen other reasons, but when you smile at someone...your face doesn't just light up which makes you feel alot better but you make the other person you are smiling at feel good inside too!

Here is a little story from what I observed and the power of what a smile can do:

There are security guards outside my house(every neighbourhood has one these days), and I always feel bad for them because they have 10-12 hour shifts seating under the hot sun opening and closing the road for vehicles that move in and out. Every morning before I go out of my housing area and when I come back, I would wave and smile at each and everyone of them. At first, they looked puzzled when I did that, possibly because no one has acknowledge them like that before(and they probably think I am crazy), but I kept it up for the past two months and I still do that. Now, when they see me, they smile and wave at me too........the best part is that they actually are more attentive and concern when I told them about problems around my housing area......

I guess to me, it is not how a person can help you or who a person is, but how I can make a person feel happier and acknowledged just by a simple gesture such as smiling. So everyone....start turning your frown upside down!Start the day with a smile, and maybe you can smile at someone who is providing you service, such as your tea lady, cleaners, even people on the streets...... because a smile from a stranger is so unexpected..I can bet you..you might have just made their day a little better....:)

Their smiles definitely brighten up their faces(and they said they were tired!)

These guys were all smiles for their pink theme! I "happen" to just wear pink..they planned it....lol

Toothy grins to celebrate one of our closest friends birthdays!:)

     SMILE ALWAYS!!!!!!

Meiz

A smile a day keeps the unhappiness away..................

Happy Buuurrpppdaaaayyyy July gals!!!

The past month was definitely a whirlwind of birthday dinners/parties to attend!!!! To me, it was interesting how each and everyone of my girl friends wanted to celebrate their birthdays....ranging from very low key to super crazy!!!!!!!! If you believe in horoscopes, you would think that people of the same star sign probably have similar tastes, and interests right????? Not for these bunch of my friends..they may be born a few days apart from one another but are worlds apart......maybe the year, time and date plays a role too?????!!?

First birthday dinner I attended was Felicia's "just a normal night" dinner at Skewers....she was really hillarious...all of us were dress up for her birthday and she looked at me and said "But, tonight is just a normal dinner right? Not celebrating my birthday right?" lol!!! Babe...of course we came out to celebrate your birthday and we thought long and hard where to bring you for dinnner..........and yes..we dressed up for you:) HOpe you enjoyed it!!!

The following weekend.....we truly went out for "her celebration" at Frangipani's!

Happy Birtthhdaaay Julllesss!!!! Yes yes..I had to take a picture of the cake because it was beautiful and done just right!!!!

Naturally..every birthday..there must be a dinner mostly because we are Malaysians??!! hehehehe...this gal decided to go for crabs...her fav!!!!!! She can just eat crabs alone for dinner..and it MUST be the salted egg variety...(Guys listen up)...the way to her heart:p

As you can see...it's a polka dot themed night...we even had to stick red dots on our faces...yes we love you and we will stick red measle like dots on our faces for you:) Mostly because it's YOUR BIRTHDAY!hugggzzzz

Of course..full swing party at TDH after!! More polka dots whereever you go....everyone followed the theme..super retro..they played mambo music too!!!!

Even the guys...wore polka dots..yes "girlfriends"!!!

Leona Leona.....Happy birthday!!! Karaokkkkeeeeee!! weeeeeeeeee!!!!! We all went crazy that night...with a buffet dinner and karaoke fuled us for much dancing AND singing on the couch (more like just the girls)  

Someone had an ingenious idea that each and everyone in the room had to feed her a piece of cake...which I thought was really cute.....you have to do something special "just coz it's your birthday" right??!!Amd yes..she was probably pretty stuffed to the brim with cake in 5 minutes!

HOw I See birthday celebrations is that you get to celebrate the day you were born only once every year right? So........make the best out of it.......do what YOU want to do...what You like to eat.... because it is YOUR day..and we as your friends and family..will definitely accomodate and celebrate the day with you:) As you can see....all these gal friends of mine had different kinds of celebrations but ultimately..they enjoyed it...and there was alot of laughter and gaiety!!!

xoxo

Meiz

Aspirations, hopes and dreams........

Having dinner in a beautiful restaurant one night with a couple of friends.........we had an interesting conversation about "hopes and dreams"! You are thinking......man......aren't you a little too old to ask yourself "What would I want to be when I grow up?" Actually, from my perspective, there is no time or limit to aspirations or hopes for something a person wants to achieve because these dreams can encompass something as simple as "I want a job" to "I hope to be the prime minister in the future".

As our conversation went on that night, I realized that each and everyone of us had different opinions on what they aspire to achieve for in life. Some of us aimed to give back to the society ultimately, others dream to to extremely rich and another one aspired to do some self exploration in hopes of being a great parent! Hearing all these aspirations and most importantly looking at how my friends are trying to achieve it is very motivating and enlightening. Given that I originally thought that there is only one route to achieving my dreams, I pursued it wholeheartedly even when I realized that it wasn't for me.......now I realized that there is many ways to achieving your dreams, and that I should follow the path that suits me, and I am most happy with. Thanks to the support from my family and friends, I would say that I am on that path, although different than my original one and might be a challenge, I embrace it fully because it took me quite a number of years to realize it, and I am enjoying every bit of it. One of my best friends is also pursuing a path of self exploration in a foreign country because she wants to find out the career she feels passionately about, and I always encouraged her because I know in the end, she is learning and experiencing so much more by venturing into the unknown...

Be strong babe! The first step to trying something new with a brand, spanking new hairdo!

One of the main reasons that hinder many people from "dreaming" is the fact that they are hindered by fears! I know quite a few people who are afriad to send their resumes out to companies when it is not directly related to their majors, or are just plain afraid to go for interviews, and yet they complain about not having jobs. From how I see it, what's wrong with sending your resumes out to many companies, you don't lose anything if they don't call you back, whereas you have possibility to gain a job if they do:) My grandmother once told me before: "Mei Sze, when I was young, I was not afraid of anything because I have an abled body and I know I can somehow find my way to survive. If I have what you have right now(e.g., family support, financial means,etc.), I will be able to do/be anything!" . I truly admire my grandmother because she was one person that was willing to work hard to earn a living back then, she was a canteen operator, hairstylist,etc. Given that the circumstances are different now for some of us, I agree with her that we should go ahead and pursue happiness/dreams without any fears...........

I write this because I want to tell people out there, unsure of their life paths, and are stuck in a rut....For example, wanting to pursue a whole different career but are afraid to because of comfort and habit....afraid to pursue a degree in the arts because their parents keep drilling in them that they cannot find a job in that area.......... these are just some stories I have encountered and hearing these stories also push me to write this post......to tell you...

DON'T BE AFRAID TO DREAM! AND DREAM BIG AT THAT!

xoxo
Meiz