I’m starting out a new series that will require your participation. Through writing this blog and others I’ve met some amazing people; some that I generally consider friends (even if we haven’t met). One of the biggest things of importance are our connections that we make. The ones that mean something to us, where we are given the gift of understanding or seeing from a new point of view. Sometimes it can come from a close friend or relative, sometimes from an absolute stranger, who just so happened upon our lives when we needed it. It is the stories, the emotions, that truly bind us together. If we take that extra time to dig a little deeper, we find out we aren’t so different or alone as we may feel sometimes.
So I’m asking for your help to make this a success. I want you to respond with your own answers, so we can all learn a little bit more about each other and in turn, learn a little more about ourselves. So here’s what you will need to do:
In these projects I may pick a topic to discuss or ask you to do something: You can either answer the questions or projects here or on your own blog. I only ask that if you do, please tag the original post from my site, so I can find your answers and we can share together.
The First Project is titled: So Happy I’m Sad
With this project I want you to list one or as many items as you want of things that make you happy and sad at the same time. I also want you to give an explanation of why or why you think it makes you feel this way, and why it is important or personal to your experience.
Here are two of mine:
Walking around my parent’s home
Almost every time I visit my parents, I feel the need to walk around the perimeter of their yard. I want to look at everything, even though I’ve seen it thousands of times. It makes me happy to visit but sad at the same time. I feel like I’m visiting distant memories. Placing myself in the spots that I stood or played in years ago. If I think enough I can picture the exact place or moment I was in a specific spot. Some of the memories are of sadness, joy, shame, or more. I still remember that part of me and it makes me sad that I won’t have that chance to go back to that, or that I didn’t appreciate the experience enough when I was in it. These places that are so familiar to me can seem so distant, as if it were another lifetime.
Fall
I’ve always said my favorite season is fall. I get excited when I feel the first cool breeze of Autumn, knowing that the season is closing in. I look forward to the changing leaves, the harvest festivals, the taste of hot chicken corn soup on a cold afternoon, the deep blue skies that seem to spread out forever, everything that is synonymous with Fall. But the knowing excitement also comes with the caveat that I will become more retrospective, more nostalgic, more introverted than I normally am. Something about watching as the world prepares to go out with a brilliant display until it can emerge again makes me think about my life in a way that is deep, meaningful, and ultimately sad. Sad that I know that someday I will go through one last Fall myself. Knowing that my life will eventually end and these moments of joy will someday cease and what will be left is only snapshots of who I was, symbols that are synonymous with me.
Now I want to hear from you! What makes you happy and sad at the same time?
Kloipy Speaks 
Great choices, I too love Fall, I was born in November but it’s more than that, I love the turning, the golden, the rich fruitfulness of the summer that was and the closing in for winter.
The Happy/sad that jumped to mind when I read your piece was baby clothes. Sometimes I hold a onesie up to me like I would have its owner, I look at the tiny feet and tiny everything and I remember those times, Its so bittersweet as I loved having them as babies but I love having them now, seeing them grow and thrive is the adventure of our lives.
Another Happy sad is an old photo of mine I have up on my office wall, I remember both the day it was taken and getting the print to take home, I was about 10 years old and was in the middle of an abusive childhood at the time, you would never know it looking at the picture really but I can see it in her eyes and I want to go back, offer some support and tell her it’s all going to be pretty damn wonderful down the line, the other Happy sad of the photo is how young and pretty I was but didn’t really know it.
Thank you so much for your contribution Starryslippers! Photos definitely have that ability, where a passer by might take notice and see it in a completely different way than how you feel when you view it. I too have picture that hold those sad memories, even if the surface looks happy. There’s been times I’ve looked at pictures of myself and wanted to go and do exactly what you wrote. Or sometimes you get that feeling when you find a picture you haven’t seen in years and instantly it transports you, and it is so powerful.
Thank you again for putting your piece to this project!
🙂 I look forward to the rest of the series it sounds interesting 🙂
thank you! I’m looking forward to doing it and for the response, just like how perfect yours was. thank you again
Also- I’m a November baby as well. Scorpios for the win!
🙂
1. Looking through old stories I’ve written. I’m sad that they’re done and I can no longer take part in that journey, but I’m happy I wrote them and always happy to return, even if it’s only as a visitor.
2. Like you, walking around old stomping grounds like my parents’ houses (we had a few), driving by my old schools, driving old and familiar routes, etc. Same reason as 1: it’s over, but the memories make me smile.
3. Finishing a TV/Book series. Again, sad that it’s over, glad for the experience.
I really like these ideas, Seth. They really grow community and this particular one was fun to write. Looking forward to others!
Thanks so much for contributing man! I know I feel the same way about the writing. I’ll go back and look over some of the responses and get to feel that joy of knowing something I’m proud of
Yes..finishing a book or box set I agree and sometimes I even catch myself wondering what a character is doing now, then I remember it was a book.
Great call on the finishing a book or TV series. That’s the worst/best.
I do not understand this it seems silly to get sad like a big waste of time.
They don’t call life the veil of tears for nothing 🙂
I think it is an important emotion to feel. Being only happy all the time is boring and doesn’t make you appreciate things as much. Being happy and sad at the same time is a balance, just like the rest of life is balance.
My daughter’s clothes that she’s already outgrown. She gets even more amazing every day, but those clothes remind me that she’s going to grow up one day and not cuddle with me on the couch while I stroke her head.
Yeah man, there are so many truly bittersweet moments as a parent. Just over the weekend we went to an amusement park and I went in to help her out of one of the rides and she turns to me and says ‘I can do it myself daddy’. Made me proud that she’s growing up but sad at the same time
See, I’m still excited for the time when she’ll be able to simply call me daddy. Then, yea…bittersweet, probably.
I won’t go as deep as some of the people here, but something that simultaneously makes me happy and sad is waking up early (or not necessarily early, just after not sleeping enough).
Makes me happy because, hey, it means I’M WAKING UP. I’m alive another day, and I’m fine! It makes me sad because there’s literally nothing I hate more than not sleeping enough and feeling like crap! lol
that’s a great one man! thanks for your contribution!
My pleasure! 🙂
Hey Seth –
I haven’t always had a very good time in my life – it’s very easy for me to get depressed – there was a point after my grandpa died that I felt like I couldn’t go on. I’ve said it before and it’s not just air up her ass but my wife literally saved what was left of my life. There’s a song by this group named Stain’d called “So Far Away” and every time I hear it I bawl like a baby because it reminds me that I am allowed to be proud of myself and happy that my wife is in my life.
Now that I’ve written that I have to go find a tissue, nice. LOL – I hope no one comes in my office in the next ten minutes.
Thank you so much for sharing that, Eric. I’ve been there as well my friend. I know I’ve had times in my life where my wife saved me as well. It is good to be able to talk about this and see that we can come out of it, and become stronger because of it. I too struggle with being happy with who I am sometimes and wishing I was a better person or achieved more, but the thing is that is just my own negativity telling me that I’m not good enough, when in reality we are all just trying to figure out why we are here. My hope for this project is to really connect on a deeper level with a lot of people and see that we all share the same experiences in our own ways. thanks again my friend
I will be do write up on my blog Seth and link it….look for it soon…cheers friend. Great Post!
Can’t wait to read it my friend!
[…] to name two things which make them happy while at the same time makes sad. He called it The Kloipy Projects: So Happy I’m Sad. Go check him out and see what he’s about if you would like. (but not before you finish […]
Dude, tough question. I am struggling to come up with anything that is not an utter cliche. Two that spring to mind though:
1. Any time I leave my partner to go off and do something really fun. For example, leaving for a few days to go off with the boys or to head to a film festival. Obviously happy to be around old friends or immersing myself in film. But sad cause the ladyfriend is not there.
2. Looking at photos of passed loved ones, whilst writing. Near my writing space, I have a few photos of my pop and an aunty who has passed away. They are placed there very specifically, because I find both these people to be very inspirational. So when I look at those photos, I am happy because I am writing which I love to do. But sad because those people are not around anymore. I have a photo of my pop walking my aunty down the aisle when she was married which makes me especially happy/sad
thanks so much for contributing man! I’m not shocked but definitely taken by the amount of people who’ve said about the photos. They do have so much of that quality to them. Even ones not attached to bad memories. Just that wistful nostalgia captured for one perfect moment. It is intense. Thanks again!
Old photos.
The end of the film Miracle Mile.
When a sparrowhawk spears across the garden and rips a small bird out of midair…
thanks for contributing man! I don’t think i”ve seen Miracle Mile. I’ll have to look that one up
I have another one. I pass by a circus on my way to work, and there a couple of tigers in cages outside. Makes me happy because they’re my favorite animal, and I love seeing them because they’re gorgeous. It makes me sad because they’re locked in a tiny fucking cage and it’s getting pretty hot here lately.
that one definitely fits. Hate to see that