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Celebrate Small Wins

Jason Wetzler

Walking back from Chemistry class down Monroe, I text my buddy Trent, "Just got a B on my Chem quiz, what you doing?" He texts back, "Finnegan's, 8pm, tomorrow."


"What a strange man," I think to myself as I continue walking. Trent and I had seen less of each other this semester than in the past. Most of it was because we were seniors and no longer lived in the same house, but busy schedules preparing for life after college also played a role.


I hadn't heard from him in about a week and so I was curious as to what this mysterious meeting was about. Over the next day and a half, he doesn't answer any of my calls or reply to my texts. I sigh, a bit exasperated, but laugh to myself because this is just who Trent is.


I show up to Finnegan's right at 8pm and he's nowhere to be found. Before long I hear laughing, then singing, and the doors burst open. Trent, his girlfriend Dylan, and a few of their close friends come waltzing (literally dancing in) with a cookie cake in hand, candles already lit. "Is it someone's birthday?" I ask.


"Nope! You got a B on your chem quiz!" Trent shouts, and everyone fist pumped in a hoorah. Even the waitstaff started cheering, apparently in on the joke I didn't quite get yet. "I just figured we hadn't seen each other in awhile and maybe we both needed something to celebrate. When you texted me you got a B, I thought, 'that's worth celebrating!'"


For the rest of the semester Trent and I found small things to celebrate. Making it to every class on time, our friend Trevor's uncle (who we had never met) getting a new truck, the Oklahoma State tennis team winning a match, and a slew of other random things we deemed worthy of celebrating. We'd buy a cookie cake, make posters on signboards, light candles, and spend time together.


Oftentimes people around us would ask whose birthday it was and we'd laugh before telling them what we were celebrating. Mostly, people were confused, but rarely did they turn down a piece of cookie cake. Even strangers were brought into the joy a celebration caused.


Life has a way of getting us down and trying to keep us there. If it's been awhile since your last big win that society deems worthy of celebrating, then celebrate a small one. We find more joy, more community, and more gratitude in our daily lives when we started celebrating small wins consistently.


Find something to celebrate every day because life is too short to not be consistently eating cookie cake.


Fact

Michael Coles and Arthur Karp, the founders of Great American Cookies, created the cookie cake.


Action

Celebrate a friend's small win this week.


Question

What is a small win in your life that has gone uncelebrated?


Quote

"Celebrate what you want to see more of." -Tom Peters

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