So you had a bad day?

You had a bad day, eh? Do you fake up a smile and take your coffee to go?? Ok but really, could I even speak on the topic of having a bad day without incorporating Daniel Powter? The correct answer is no ma'am.

I feel like I see so many people taking to good ole Facebook to rant and rave about...

"Cannot believe I had to wait two extra minutes for my Starbucks coffee because they were so busy this morning. Ugh"

"On my way to pick the kids up and got a flat tire. Could this day get any worse?? #sucks"

Seriously, what? If you people think I'm even remotely close to joking go back through your Facebook status updates and I promise that you have posted something very, very similar. I'll admit it, I'm guilty of doing this exact thing myself. Sometimes it feels like life is a huge wave and all of a sudden you're drowning. Not to burst your bubble, but it's just a bad day. Not a bad life.

Let me tell you a story of an encounter that totally changed my outlook on not only my life but also my attitude towards things that are out of my control.

I was at work one evening when a customer walked through the door. I said hello as I always do, and noticed she was putting her younger child in the seat on the front of the cart. Immediately my attention was drawn to them, because I love kids- so of course I had to go talk to the little guy. After approaching them I quickly realized the son had a birth defect.. (I hate identifying it as that because it sounds so heartless, but that's what it was. A birth defect that this sweet boy had no control over.) I paid no attention to said defect though and spoke to him as I would any other child that would walk through the door. He told me he was two years old and out shopping with his mom. Let me tell you, this little nugget was the sweetest sweetest sweetest boy I'd ever met. After our conversation I told him I would see him when it was time for them to checkout, as I knew his mom probably wanted to go on about her shopping.

After shopping the store for a bit it was time for them to pay for their items and leave. I made sure to tell him that he was the CUTEST tiny guy I'd ever seen and his response was priceless. "You're welcome!!" His mom said, no baby you tell her thank you. He responded again with "You're welcome!" I don't think he understood that those phrases weren't interchangeable. But I didn't care anyway, I was thankful he was such a precious little man. He waved goodbye to me and said "bye. bye-bye. bye." probably ten times. And out the door they went.

As I watched them pull out of the parking lot I couldn't help my eyes from welling up with tears that began to roll down my face like a much needed spring rain. This little boy has probably been through hell and back due to this defect that he had absolutely no control over, and he was still the most genuinely happy kid I'd ever met. He was so overjoyed to be shopping with his mommy and had no other cares in the world. I later found out he was born with Spina Bifida, a defect in which the spinal cord doesn't develop correctly while the baby is in the womb causing protruding spinal cord tissue. His mom told me he just received his first wheelchair and they were working so hard trying to teach him how to be mobile in it.

As I'm typing this I feel myself getting emotional all over again. How am I, someone who has everything I could ever want - a loving family, friends who accept me for who I am, a roof over my head, and a healthy functioning body - how in the world could I ever think accidentally spilling my coffee is enough of a reason to think my day is ruined? That little boy left his mark on me in ways he could never even imagine. Every single day from here on out I vow to find the genuine happiness in everything I do, much like he did that day running errands with his mommy. My only hope is that you, too, can learn to love life even half as much as he does. Because then, I guarantee nobody will have bad days.

-morg