I was 16 when my mom took me to my first sunflower field. We had this mother-daughter day planned for weeks, where we would go to the sunflower field and then have lunch at a cute, outdoor cafe. The night before, I laid out my blue-jean overalls and yellow converse, impatiently waiting for the big day to arrive. I remember staring at the glowing stick-on stars on my ceiling and imagining myself skipping majestically up and down the bright yellow fields, feeling the beams of warm sun glistening on my face. I desperately yearned for the bright, colorful energy that a sunflower field radiates.
When I woke up in the morning, I changed into my Instagrammable outfit, peeked out my window, and found no glistening sunbeams, only a whole lot of rain. I was devastated. “How could we go to the sunflower fields when there was no sun?” I asked myself. However, my mom was still determined to continue with our original mother-daughter day and asked me to throw out my gloomy attitude and replace it with an optimistic one. With a few minor revisions to our day, I switched out my yellow converse for a pair of yellow rain boots, grabbed two umbrellas, and set off for the sunflower fields.
My mom and I spent a couple of hours at the fields where we danced in the rain and dropped our jaws at the sight of hundreds of our favorite flowers. We even snuck a couple of sunflowers home with us. As we were walking back to the car, I was overcome with this sensation of immense joy; I realized even on the darkest and stormiest of days, the color yellow has the power to bring a feeling of warm happiness to my life.
I am now 20 years old, and not a day has gone by that the color yellow hasn’t brightened my day. I choose to surround myself with yellow because I believe its luminesce will continue to help me grow and shine. From a psychological point of view, yellow stimulates our nerves, glands and brain, making us more alert and energized. It gives us energy. The brain associates yellow with optimism and the cheerfulness of a sunny day. It is time you make your brain and body happier by adding a little more yellow to your daily life.
I am not here to convince you to rewrite your favorite color as yellow; I simply believe that everyone should recognize the happiness associated with the color. It is the color of the sun, the trademark for a smiley face, and it is one of the colors of arguably the best Hogwarts House. Coldplay even has a whole song dedicated to the warmth and cheerfulness of the color yellow.
There is an old tale that the artist, Vincent Van Gogh, used to eat yellow paint because he thought it would bring happiness to his body and soul. He desperately yearned for bright, cheerful energy. He risked consuming that yellow paint on the slight chance it could make him happier. When you are looking for something to make your insides happy, rather than eating toxic paint, go buy some sunflowers or eat some honey. Even on your darkest days, surround yourself with the color yellow. Believe me, yellow will transform your life. If you embrace the yellow, your energy will pour over everyone you surround yourself with. It is time you radiate like the sun, bloom like a sunflower, and be sweet like honey.