All my life I've been told to smile more. The first few years in school, each yearbook picture I brought home was of me glaring. The photographer would say, SMILE! and then call me something like "Lil' Annie Oakley" or "Lil' Bo Peep." And I'd glare. Who wouldn't glare at the photographer? Plus he brushed my hair like a complete nerd. Since kicking him was out of the question (it's pretty obvious when I'm about to kick someone, so he'd have a chance to run away) all I could do was glare. Which probably gave the impression that I was a very angry, angry child from kindergarten to second grade.

In fifth grade, my music teacher told me to smile. She was nice enough, so I managed a smile, but without showing my teeth because she hadn't earned that much of a smile. She then said, "Don't you look pretty when you smile! You're much prettier when you're happy!" In that case, I was probably never "much prettier." Smiling just doesn't come naturally to me. Unless something is funny, of course. Or some one is taking a picture, because I figure, hey, that picture will last much longer than the memory of me. When they go back and see the pictures, all with me smiling, they'll think I was a much more cheerful person. And cheerful people are much prettier.

So I try to keep a half-smile most of the time, because my half-smile is equivalent to most people's pleasant expressions. Plus when I forget to half-smile, I get a lot more comments like "what's wrong?" and "are you mad?" Nope, just wasn't blessed with a perma-grin. I bet the Joker never got comments like that.