Kayla had been in Iowa for about five months. We don’t have many opportunities to see her, and when we do it is only for a short period of time. She had recently gotten a new boyfriend.(really have some problems here, any other way to re word it to make it sound good? i had no luck!) Someone we all wanted to meet. Cherron thought he knew the perfect solution to this problem.

            He had everything planned out to the dot. We were going on a road trip. Normally my parents would be fine with this but this time, Cherron would be the one driving since he had just received his license. I knew there was no chance they would even consider letting me go. The answer would be no right off the bat.

            Cherron wanted me to lie to my parents and tell them I had a school function occurring all day long. I didn’t want to do this because knowing my mom, she would figure out that there wasn’t a school function. It didn’t appeal(?) to me to lie to my parents. It could result in a full loss of trust from my parents. My parents trust is too valuable to toy with.

            Cherron ended up going to Garwin with Kristina and Kyle. They went to Garwin, did everything as planned. When they returned home they had to face their parents. Their parents had found out about their road trop. Each one of them got grounded for a month or more. Cherron, the leader of this road trip got his car taken away for a total of three months. I am relived that I didn’t go because trust is something I didn’t want to chance.

            “Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Happiness is a feeling that is good for the heart and soul. It is something people show to others when they contain a good feeling that warms their heart People sometimes take happiness and go to the extremes. Some like to fake their happiness in order to make their life seem perfect when in reality they are living a fake unhappy life. Most people who take their happiness too far are unhappy, jealous, and unsatisfied people.

            Unhappy or unstable people might fake their happiness because they do not want anyone knowing that they are upset. These people tend to believe that if they hide their sadness and put on a mask, all their fears will go away; no one will ever know the side of them that is hurting. They believe they are helping themselves get through their own problems when they could be hurting close friends in the process. They shouldn’t fake their happiness because it’s only pushing their problems away and creating new ones.

            Although part of fake happiness is sorrow, it could also be caused by jealousy. Jealousy is a prime factor in fake happiness with people. They put on a smile so others that they may be jealous of, can’t see through them. They would like those people to believe they love everything in their life although they don’t have everything they want. They brag to people about stuff they don’t have including friends, family, belongings, whatever it is they are jealous of to make them believe they have all this stuff. They do this in order to make themselves feel better about themselves but it only brings them down. Jealousy is something they need to learn to deal with so they don’t feel the need to put on a fake smile for the whole world to see.

            If jealousy is causing them to fake their happiness when they truly aren’t, it may be because they are unsatisfied with their lives as well. If they are unsatisfied with their life, they might not want to share it with people, creating the need to act happy all the time when on the inside they aren’t. To be unsatisfied is not a great feeling, it is a feeling of vulnerability and greed. Some take this greed and will do anything in order to achieve what they want recreating problems in their lives. To be this unsatisfied is troubling and could cause a lot of grief; People need to make goals so they can become satisfied in a good way without causing danger or problems for themselves.

            In conclusion, I believe in order to achieve happiness, all problems need to be dealt with before moving on. If a person creates a visual in their mind that putting on a mask is ok, it is not going to achieve the same potential of happiness in comparison of solving problems before they worsen. They need to get rid of their jealousy and set goals for themselves so they can start off fresh and create the true happiness they deserve.

THE STINKY CHEESE MAN

Once upon a time there was a little old woman and a little old man who lived together in a little old house. They were lonely.  So the little old lady decided to make a man out of stinky cheese.  She gave him a piece of bacon for a mouth and two olives for eyes and put him in the oven to cook. 

When she opened the oven to see if the was done, the smell knoced her back,  “Phew!  What is that terrible smell?”  she cried.  The Stinky Cheese Man hopped out of the oven and ran out the door calling, “Run run run as fast as you can.  You can’t catch me.  I’m the Stinky Cheese Man!”

The little old lady and little old man sniffed the air.  “I’m not really very hungry,” said the little old man.  “I’m not really all that lonely,” said the little old lady.  So they didn’t chase the Stinky Cheese Man.  The Stinky Cheese Man ran and ran until he met a cow eating grass in a field.  “Wow!  What’s that awful smell?” said the cow.

The Stinky Cheese Man said, “I’ve run away from a little old lady and little old man and I can run away from you too I can.  Run run run as fast as you can.  You can’t catch me.  I’m The Stinky Cheese Man!”  The cow gave another sniff and said, “I’ll bet you could give someone two or three stomachaches.  I think I’ll just eat weeds.”  So the cow didn’t chase The Stinky Cheese Man either. 

The Stinky Cheese Man ran and ran until he met some kids playing outside school.  “Gross,” said a little girl.  “What’s that nasty smell?”  “I’ve run away from a little old lady, and a little old man, and a cow, and I can run away from you too I can.  Run run run as fast as you can.  You can’t catch me.  I’m The Stinky Cheese Man!”  A little boy looked up, sniffed the air and said, “If we catch him, our teacher will probably make us eat him.  Let’s get out of here.”  So the kids didn’t chase The Stinky Cheese Man either.

By and by The Stinky Cheese Man came to a river with no bridge.  “How will I ever cross this river?  It’s too big to jump, and if I try to swim across I’ll probably fall apart,”  said You-Know-Who.  Just then the sly fox (who shows up in a lot of stories like these) poked his head out of the bushes.  “Why, just hop on my back and I’ll carry you across, Stinky Cheese Man.”  “How do I know you won’t eat me?”  “Trust me,” said the fox.  So The Stinky Cheese Man hopped on the fox’s back.  The fox swam to the middle of the river and said, “Oh man!  What is that funky smell?”

The fox coughed, gagged, and sneezed, and The Stinky Cheese Man flew off his back and into the river where he fell apart.

The end.