The day before classes started, my brother and I went through the Campus Crawl. Campus Crawl is an event where students can get a preview of some of the great activities that N.C . State has to offer in the coming year. Among all the groups we found one group that really drew our interest, the Clown Nose Club.
The members of the Clown Nose Club were wearing bright yellow shirts with red polka dots, with the back containing the message “You Rock!” NCSU students started a Clown Nose Club based off the Clown Nose Club at Penn State. Basically, the Clown Nose Club is an organization where members challenge each other to take positive social risks. They handed out little cards saying “You Rock!” and asked everyone to either give them to someone else or to put them where someone would find them. I handed my card to someone, and the smile on her face was amazing. It absolutely floors me how something that small and simple can make someone smile.
A study by researchers at Harvard University in 2008 determined that, contrary to the popular saying, misery doesn’t love company but, as it turns out, happiness sure does. The study determined that the happiness of an immediate contact increased an individual’s chances of becoming happy by 15 percent.
The entire study makes sense, if you think about it. Within the last week, how often have you found yourself walking around campus smiling? My guess is probably not too often. It appears that it is somewhat of a rarity to see people walking around campus smiling.
On the first day of the semester, Dr. David Jones, an agriculture education and extension professor, gave us an assignment to smile at people we walked past. He told us, when someone smiles at you, it’s virtually impossible for you to not smile back. He said he had smiled at four different people while he was walking to class that morning, and all four had smiled back at him.
Since talking to my professor and being introduced to the Clown Nose Club I’ve started thinking: how often do I smile at random people that I’m walking past? When was the last time someone arbitrarily smiled at me? I didn’t like the answers to either of those questions. So I decided to make a change, and to start smiling at people.
Since my realization, I have started a new habit: anytime I see someone who looks a little down, I make sure to smile at them. Nine times out of 10, they smile back. Not only does it make them not look so down, but also it makes me happier to think I could have made that person’s day better. Granted, it’s only been about a week, but so far I’m doing well.
So, I dare you, NCSU , smile at different people. You never know whose day you’re going to make better.