Never Lose Your Happiness

In life, many things will influence you. Maybe you read about someone in a book, or you’ve met someone, or maybe even a character in a book. However, as a seventeen-year-old student, the quote that I heard once that truly influenced me was, “When you’ve lost something, you’ve lost it, don’t lose your happiness as well.” The simplest woman said this simple quote, and this woman is my mother, who truly influenced my life in every way possible. 

Ever since I can remember, my mom always wanted my sister and I to be happy. As someone who is an immigrant to Canada, I truly see the different living styles between countries. One day my mom was watching my sister doing homework. Back in China, because of their curriculum, you usually end up with a lot of homework. School life there is a lot harder; even in elementary school, she had to stay up until 11:00 pm or even later to finish her homework. Can you imagine that? This is when my mom thought of a risky plan. She thought of immigrating to Canada. 

Eventually, near the end of 2011, my mom, my sister, and I immigrated to Canada. At first, it was very hard, my mom didn’t know any English and neither did my sister and I. I still remember our first time going to McDonald’s. We were very confused. We didn’t even know what combo or even a burger meant. After looking at the menu with a blank face for a long time, my mom sighed, “Girls let’s go home, your mom still needs time to figure out how to order food here.” About a week later we returned to McDonald’s, this time it went a lot smoother. I finally had the chance to bite into a delicious burger. Turns out, my mom went to her fellow Chinese friends here in Canada and learned with them how to order at McDonald’s. Thinking back now, my mom put in a lot of effort for us to live in Canada.

At that time, I barely remembered most things my mom told me as a five-year-old. But I think the first thing that she told me that I’ll remember for life was the quote above. I was just finishing trick-or-treating when I realized I had lost my phone! At first, I was so nervous and frustrated. I thought all my pictures, recordings, and memories are on the phone, so if I lost the phone, I lost the memories.

My mom realized how frustrated I was so she told me the quote that her teacher once told her, “When you’ve lost something, you’ve lost it, don’t lose your happiness as well.”

This really clicked with me. I thought, “Yeah, why am I sad? It’s not like being sad will get it back, so why don’t I just be happy and look over it?” We returned home hoping and praying for a nice person to find my phone and hopefully return it. Before I left for school the next morning, my mom told me, “Hey Ally, don’t be too sad, ok, my teacher also told me once that girls who smile usually don’t have bad luck.” I smiled and left for school. As soon as school was finished, I rushed to the front desk to call my mom. I asked her, “Did you find my phone?” She replied: “Guess what! A friendly gentleman found your phone and hoped to return it!” I can’t tell you how happy I was. I thought all my photos, recordings, and my memory are back! Later that night we went to go pick up my phone. After we did, my mom nudged me and said, “See what I told you, girls who smile don’t have bad luck.”

In the future, I will meet more people and hear more inspiring quotes, but the first quote that truly inspired me and I will always remember is, “When you’ve lost something, you’ve lost it, don’t lose your happiness as well.”

It’s been a few years since my mother first said this to me and it still influences me now. Whenever I don’t succeed in something, I always tell myself, “Don’t be sad and try harder next time.” It not only helps me in terms of losing something but also in life in general. Being sad or mad does not help at all, all it does is make you feel even worse. At the end of the day, we can correct a mistake, but we can’t ever re-live another life.