My beautiful day was, in fact, a beautiful day and made all the more lovely with the recognition of such.

The one thing I was most concerned about was the weather. My favorite kind of weather is overcast but not humid. I wasn’t counting on nature to comply with my plans for an ideal day, but I was pleasantly surprised when I woke up and found the weather was just as I liked.

The prospects for the day were already great because it was a weekend and I had no obligations; I like having a whole free day.

I love to save money, so shopping was wonderful because I got a lot of buys at good deals, including $2 shoes and a new denim skirt for $6. It was fun window-shopping as well.

It means a lot to me to be able to go through a day smoothly with no arguments or mishaps; this depends a lot on the person you’re with. Thankfully my friend was great, chivalrous, fun and intriguing, as usual. You should be with someone who makes you feel like it’s ok to be yourself.

For dinner we ate at Claim Jumper’s, which is one of my favorite restaurants with big portions. The food was great, the service was actual fun and the company was divine.

Finally we ended the day with a movie I hadn’t seen before (I don’t like watching movies I’ve already seen). It was nice because, like that day, there was nothing to do particularly the next day but enjoy myself.

All of the “beautiful” elements have been tried and true; I’ve discovered what I like and what I don’t like, so it was easy to compile a list of ideal qualities of a day and aim to live them out. They all make me feel good without any harm to others and there’s really nothing else I could ask for from a day.

It’s only unfortunate how difficult it is to have just one perfect day with so little time to accomplish ideally everything I could want to do. My life goals include making a positive significant difference in the world and of course it’s rather complicated to carry this out in 24 hours. However, I still found it was possible to make the day beautiful while keeping along the lines of my goals by being courteous and kind. Sometimes someone’s day can be brightened by a simple considerate act, like holding open a door or giving a compliment.

Having a great and beautiful day is probably less special without taking the time to enjoy and savor it as well as being grateful for it. There’s no point in having a perfect day if you don’t realize it; it’s all about your state of mind. Sometimes people can have wonderful days but have such a negative attitude or a strong focus on the less favorable elements of their day that it doesn’t even matter.

I think living out a “beautiful day” can be achieved more often if one were just to exercise such gratitude and recognition of one’s luck and privilege. One should also be willing to look at things more positively and be capable of looking past the negative to enjoy beautiful days more often.

While people can hardly have control over things like weather or the moods of others, they can make choices to affect their circumstances. They can move to a place with favorable weather or act in ways that would engender certain responses from those around them. You always have a choice!

I later realized that I helped make for my own beautiful day. I did my homework early in the week so I could have a free weekend. I chose my company and treated him well so he would reciprocate my kindness. I suggested the activities we partook in and the locations we visited; they were reasonable and fun. Though I couldn’t have power over everything, I retained a positive attitude and tried what I could to ensure I had a beautiful day.