My friend, Faye, was suggested by another friend of hers to do this Instagram tag challenge called the 100 Happy Days Challenge. Now, I’m not necessarily in need of a pick-me-up. I am just pretty human, and I have my bad days, but if you asked me to grade the status of my life, I’d probably give it the best score possible. Sometimes I struggle to get out of bed in the morning, but my life would be less perfect if I didn’t.

Regardless, I loved the idea of sharing something visually and explaining why it made me happy, so for ten days now, I’ve posted pictures to Instagram of things that have made me happy. I’ll include some of my favorites in this post.

Today’s #100happydays is apparently about the happiness in spectatorship. I’m not big on card games, but @natesoer won’t shut up about poker, so tonight I got my crash course. In addition to not being much of a card gamer, I’m not much of a night owl, but spending time with some of Nate’s favorite people is more than enough to make me happy. Next time, I play. Tonight was also the last game of Nate’s volleyball league; watching Nate play volleyball is probably one of my favorite things about being a girlfriend. There’s something so infectious about a person’s enthusiasm for something and something so rewarding about being a scorekeeper, supporter, and no. 1 fan.

A photo posted by Jia Faner (@howdoyouwords) on May 12, 2015 at 2:00am PDT

I’ve really enjoyed the past ten days. I always feel like I want to do something. The project has motivated me to not only get up and carpe diem, but it’s made me excited to do something that makes me happy. I think a lot of unhappiness I see grown-ups experience is because they do things that don’t make them happy. I’m old enough to understand that sometimes we don’t have a choice, and sometimes sacrifices have to be made, but what I’ve found so far is that we can find something every day that makes us happy.   

#100happydays #blogilates #fitness #justdance Jia’s ultimate home workout: Just Dance and then a few minutes of pilates! As much as I love going to the gym, the roots of my non-competitive personal fitness are in yoga and pilates. Regardless of where or how I’m working out, though, I’m happy. Because endorphins.

A photo posted by Jia Faner (@howdoyouwords) on May 14, 2015 at 9:23pm PDT

There’s also something about sharing happiness that makes the happiness even more tangible and real. Now, don’t get me wrong: I am without a doubt a child of the digital age. Unless I tried really hard, there’s no way I’m going a day without visiting Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or Tumblr. I’m addicted to checking my email. But I’ve never been someone who counts likes. I’ll notice when my friends and family pay a lot of attention to something, but I don’t change my profile picture and wait for it.

For the challenge, however, I find that I want these likes. Having people interested in my happiness does wonders for my happiness. I mean, it works regardless, obviously. What made me happy on a given day will still make me happy even if nobody knows about it, but if my friends and family do know about it and like it, I feel more like my well-being and happiness is something that matters to them.

#100happydays #IAMUBC #nofilter (because duh, it doesn’t need it) I’ve been on summer break for over 3 weeks now, and UBC is a long commute from home, but you can’t keep me away! @itsfayeee let me sit next to her in a very intimidating Gateman ECON101 lecture. I learned a lot (particularly about price elasticity of demand) despite having very minimal exposure to economics, and I’d love to take some economics courses if I could. But after an hour, I decided I wanted to get some of my own work done (and Gateman doesn’t allow electronics…), so I relocated outside and was very glad I did. My beloved school, as always, was picture perfect, and soaking in the sun while reviewing a manuscript felt so great. Reading books for an internship while at the school of my dreams felt really fulfilling… I’ve had an impression that turning a hobby or passion into a career is a tough thing to do, but today, I felt pretty good about it. A photo posted by Jia Faner (@howdoyouwords) on May 19, 2015 at 6:44pm PDT

#100happydays #thefluffymovie Many of my guy friends do this thing. They’ll be saying something, saying something, and then they’ll change their tone of voice and say this phrase that sounds almost like a catch phrase, and the other guy friends will jump in and they’ll continue to say the next phrase in unison. Then they’ll usually start laughing. I don’t know what it is, but apparently guys always watch the same comedians, and none of them have ever bothered to expose the rest of us to the funnies… except tonight! I watched the last half of Gabriel Iglesias’s stand-up comedy film with @natesoer and BOY DID I LAUGH. I think being a stand up comic might be one of the hardest occupations out there. Humor is such a fickle and diverse thing (as evidenced by the few Cards Against Humanity games I’ve lost). Fluffy falls into the class of people I admire most, though, and it’s not comedians: it’s story tellers. Laughter is his hook, but the real skill in comedy is attaching the funnies to things that matter, to the truths of life. One day, a controversial teacher at my high school was saying some of his usual controversial things, and the class started laughing. He mused, “This is quickly becoming stand up comedy… the truth tends to do that, doesn’t it?” A photo posted by Jia Faner (@howdoyouwords) on May 21, 2015 at 12:48am PDT

The last thing that I’ve learned in the past 10 days is that 100 Happy Days isn’t going to mean 100 days of happiness, straight. I’m still going to feel stressed and sad and lonely and even unhappy for moments or even hours or maybe even the whole day. And that’s okay.

Happiness isn’t about ignoring those things, exactly. It’s about deciding what in your life is worth highlighting, sharing, and being proud of and letting those things be featured on Instagram, and not the other things.