At the age of 18, I lost my mother.
That is one sentence that is out of context with the tittle but, you learn what is happiness after you have been sad.
This was the most painful experience I had ever had, but is something that I treasure the most now.
As a teenager, I was full of insecurities and fears; those same ones, I would share with my mom. She would give me advice about them and also help me face some of them. At that time I would have said that it doesn't matter how hard she would try, I would still feel some of them.
That totally changed after she was gone.
Most of the days I felt like I was lost in darkness, that I wouldn't look at the world like I used to and that I wouldn't be happy ever again. But after some time, there was light in the words that my mother once told me. I learned that even we can feel happy when we are alone; that we can still smile even when our heart is broken and that, in the small things in life like a rainbow after the rain or the smell of grass during a long drive are the beauty that we share with others that are also broken in some way.
So don't forget to smile after crying because in those small tears appears the memories that we shared with loved ones that have left us more promptly.