Today’s Holidays: Just Because Day, Banana Lovers Day, National Petroleum Day
Website of the Day: Tiny Chocolate-Dipped Banana Pops- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNP0quTmNv8
Fun Fact of the Day: If you rub the inside of a banana peel on a mosquito bite, it will stop your crave to itch because of the oils in the banana!
Pretty much everything we do in life has a purpose. We go to school for future success. We surround ourselves with friends and family for a sense of belonging. We allow ourselves to be vulnerable for love. We pursue our interests for passion. We dress in our own eclectic style for confidence. We take care of ourselves for health and beauty. Life centers around obligation and necessity, because of our goal-oriented society. And while this mindset encourages productivity as well as contributes to happiness, it also creates the pressure to always have a reason for our actions. When was the last time you did something for no apparent reason? Maybe you woke up and decided to eat pizza for breakfast, or perhaps you went for a walk around your neighborhood. We have no goal in these situations, no expectation, and no motivation, and yet there’s some beautiful pleasure in both defying society and expressing our freedom to engage in life’s simple pleasures.
Just Because Day provides us with a reason to not have a reason! Not only do we get to act on spontaneity and not have to explain ourselves for it, but the day also serves as a way to redirect or further enhance our moral compass through kindness. One of my favorite quotes, from One Tree Hill (aka the best show ever created in the history of TV shows that may seem cliche at first, but truly encaptures life’s essence through nine seasons of love, betrayal, happiness, jealousy, success, loyalty, family, friendship, personal development, art, patience, and change), goes like this: “Sometimes I think we waste our words and we waste our moments, and we don’t take the time to say the things that are in our hearts when we have the chance.” Taking inspiration from this quote as well as from Just Because Day, I decided to write letters to my family for them to wake up to (Jake is at soccer preseason, so his letter is in a text!).
Aside from “just because” acts of kindness and love, I celebrated Just Because Day in a few other ways. For a while now, I’ve been watching Tiny Kitchen’s Snapchat stories. For those of you who don’t know, Tiny Kitchen cooks and bakes various tiny dishes (pink macaroons, egg and cheese croissants, and breaded chicken are a few past examples) in a tiny kitchen- pretty self-explanatory (click here for more details: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/creating-the-bite-sized-foods-of-tiny-kitchen/ ). I’m typically not someone who subscribes to accounts on Snapchat, but something about watching tiny pancakes being stacked one on top of the other, with a tiny piece of butter placed in the middle and maple syrup drizzled across the whole, tiny ensemble just really draws me in. So today, as I was watching Tiny Kitchen make tiny corn dogs, I swiped up and subscribed, just because!
I also decided to frame my giant leaf. I should probably explain. Every year my cross country team competed in States, a meet in which multiple teams ran against each other. Last year, States was held at Blair Academy, and our school arrived an hour early, so my friend, Sam, and I headed inside to relax as long as possible before we had to run (disclaimer: running was not really a priority for us senior year). It was a crisp, fall day, so the pathway to the building was covered with leaves. I glanced down at the path, and there, among the scattered leaves, mostly crumpled from the shuffling of feet, I spotted the largest leaf I had ever seen. This leaf was entirely intact, not missing even an edge of its classic shape. It had this burnt golden color and symmetrical veins that branched out from the center. And as the other leaves easily blew away in the wind, this leaf knew of its power, both in beauty and grace, remaining where it was. If the wind happened to overpower it, the leaf never lost composure, dancing along to the wind's song as if it had rehearsed for that very moment.
I picked up the leaf, admiring nature’s delicacy, and decided that I had to bring it home with me. I guarded the leaf for the rest of the afternoon, placing it underneath my backpack during the race, careful not to crush it, but putting enough pressure on top so the wind wouldn’t steal my leaf to its song. On my walk back to the bus after the race, my leaf received compliments left and right, from “Woah, that leaf is huge!” to “No way, is that a leaf? It’s so pretty!”.
For nearly a year, the leaf has sat above my bookcase in my room, and as its color fades and its liveliness diminishes, I thought it was time to give my leaf a proper display case. Why? Just because!
How did you celebrate Just Because Day? Comment below or send in a photo to nationalholidaymovement@gmail.com ! #NationalHolidayMovement #BeHappy #JustBecause