So, I recently read a book called Homeroom Diaries, by James Patterson, and the group of high-schoolers in the book was working on something they called "Operation Happiness". Its goal was to bring people together and make them happy. And I think we all need a little bit of that right now, so I am beginning Operation Happiness- CB Edition, where we come up with ideas to cheer people up and just kind of rebuild any connections that have been broken. It's not necessarily a problem-solving discussion. It can be, if that helps, but this is not a "Solution Thread." This thread is for challenges and ideas to boost everyone's happiness levels. 

I thought we could start by just each saying something we're happy about, which sounds cliche and kind of patronizing, but I don't mean it that way. You can say whatever you want, even if it's little- you can say you're happy because The Princess Bride got put on Netflix so now you can watch it whenever you want, or you can say you're happy because you saw a cloud that was the spitting image of Mickey Mouse and it made your day, just because. Or anything else random and cheering. Of course, it could also be something big, like you just won a huge scholarship or something like that. Just pick something (or two things!) you're happy about and say it. 

I personally am happy because I just realized I am excited for the first day of school. I'm going into high school and am excited for the new start and new opportunities- and today it fully sunk in that I haven't been excited for the first day of school in a long time. :-)

I hope this isn't weird or unnecessary or annoying. I just think we all need something happy right now. Let's stop the tensions from running so high, shall we? Even if we disagree, we're still CBers- we're still fun, and we're still friends. So this is just a reminder: don't forget to be happy. Or awesome. (Nerdfighter reference!)

Operation Happiness, CB Edition has begun!