Running and Passing.

Here are some of our thoughts on the Thirty Days of Smiles project.

• Time flew by, but viewing/making a per day video makes it appear much longer.
• Smiling became significantly easier as we progressed.
• When I look back at my videos I can’t help by smile!
• I either fixed by gaze upon a distant object/thought or looked directly into the camera.
• I enjoyed going off into my own head during the videos, thus organizing thoughts or allowing myself to unconsciously compute daily/weekly happenings.
• I think it’s cool to look back at all the past month and realize it was just a day by day process that I was able to smile through.
• Early on I realized I wanted to remain relatively still throughout the video. I really like the idea that the smile and time are the only active elements.
• I realized I can make a better effort to more fully display my emotions. I’m not sure if I always smile as much or as energetically as I should.
• I like my version of a smile.
• If anything, making videos presents a nice dose of reality and self awareness.
• You make smiling look like the easiest thing in the world.
• It was a lot harder to smile than I expected.
• I didn’t really focus on anything.  I’m sure a lot of my time was spent thinking about how it looked like I was barely smiling (and making myself try to smile “bigger”).
• I realized I spend the majority of my time at home in two places.
• I had no idea what I looked like when I work, I kind of like it.
• It hasn’t changed how I look at my own smile.  If anything, I like it even less.
• Watching myself for so long led to more negative than positive thoughts.  Yesterday all I could think about is how my one eyelid is bigger than the other (eczema makes it puffy and weird).
• Five minutes didn’t seem so long after a while.
• Doing this when I was sick was rough.  Took so much willpower.
• Overall I’m proud of myself for posting so much recorded time of myself online.  Not that anyone is necessarily looking at it, but the possibility is there.  I don’t put up 99% of pictures of myself because I think I look gross.
• I think my smiles are best with animals around.

You can view the videos at thirtydaysofsmiles.tumblr.com (recommended order) or in the Thirty Days of Smiles Vimeo Group.

Amy and I just wrapped up our Thirty Days of Smiles experiment.  During those thirty days, we refrained from disucssing the project, so it will be interesting to compare our opinions, intent, and overall impression of the smiles and the project itself. You can view the videos at thirtydaysofsmiles.tumblr.com or in the Thirty Days of Smiles Vimeo Group.