The Happiest Moment

The funniest thing about emotions is that we never realize we are happy when we are present in the moment. When we think about it later, we fully understand our feelings at the time. Everyone wants happiness in their lives. But what is humorous about it is we want happiness with tall claims attached to it, but the insignificant things mean a lot to us, humans. What seems trivial and mundane ends up being etched in gold in the room of treasured memories in some corner of our brains. Whether it leads to set events that might end up having a lot more impact than how it did when we were happy would not be taken into account then. When we are in a moment where we are deliriously happy, who bothers to keep track of things, right?

The last time I was entirely able to gauge my emotions and come to the conclusion that I was happy without boundaries was during an ordinary metro ride back home with my friends. The commute from college is pretty long, so having company makes a huge difference. While having company is one thing, a company that matches your level of crazy is a different feeling altogether. It was indeed a view for tired, hard-working employees heading back home for the weekend to see a group of nine loud, unruly freshmen oblivious to the fact that they were making too much noise. From Internet City to the end of the line, there was a wave of noises, cuss words, games, and actual dance moves bussin' out in the middle of a heavily packed train. Nothing big, just annoying undergraduates, clinging onto a thin, metal pole and falling into one another when the train stops at a station. Heading home with the one friend with her driving permit ensued another set of laughs and giggles that hurt your stomach. Unruly and forgetful, the driver ended up forgetting where she had parked her car, and the chaos ensued to search for a car we had never seen before. Although most of us got chewed for getting home late, we were still happy and retired for the day with a grin on our faces. Even today, as I look back on the pictures and videos of this day, I often have the faintest smile plastered on my otherwise scowling face.

They often say we don't realize the beginning of the end. We don't learn the chain of events that leads to an incident. But these thoughts were nowhere to be found when I was on the train with my first set of friends from college. As someone with an avid imagination, I sorted the train ride to the happier section of my brain, the part that told me we'd carry this friendship for a long time. The portion of my mind assured me that years later, we'd sit around with glasses of wine, reminiscing about the same metro ride that earned us hard stares, expletives and eye-rolls.