The Smile Project
On the 21st of August 1998, I wrote a poem called 'Smile'. It was written for my good friend Katy Nicholds, whom I had then only just met. At the time she was generally unhappy, and I wrote 'Smile' to try and help her. Sadly, it did not work for her. But it did work for me, so I decided to keep a copy of it with me at all times, if possible.The Smile Project itself started by accident really. One Wednesday morning a few years back now, I was waiting in Wolverhampton bus station for my bus to school. It was about 25 past 9 I think [I started school at a quarter past 10 on Wednesdays at the time]. I looked as I usually do back down the bus station to see if my bus was approaching, and in so doing noticed a girl sitting on a bench next to stand O. She looked like she was on the verge of tears. I could feel her sadness from where I stood, maybe 30 or 40 yards away. Then her bus [the 543 - it was an Optare Excel, as I recall] appeared, and I found myself running down the bus station to catch it. Once I had boarded and sat down, I realised that I was on a bus heading in completely the wrong direction for me, with my bus to school due in a very short time. So I decided to get off on Darlington Street and walk up to Victoria Street for my bus. But before I disembarked, I took my copy of 'Smile' out of my clipboard [where I kept it], and gave it to the girl, saying something like 'I thought you might need this'. She looked at me and smiled vaguely, then I ran down to the front of the bus to get off. And I spent the whole journey to school thinking 'what the hell did I just do?'.
Then, on the Saturday, I was walking through town past the MOTH [that's the Man on the Horse, for any non Wulfrunians reading this], and I saw the girl from the bus. She was standing, talking with some of her friends. Then she saw me and smiled, and walked towards me. When she said 'you're Vince, aren't you?' I was moderately scared. But it turned out that she knew Stoo [who I knew - he with the dreads and the long black coat], and had asked him if he knew me. I believe that my sideburns, as was customary at the time, were used by her to describe me to Stoo. But anyway, she introduced herself as Lauren, and then she hugged me and said that the poem had made her feel much better, and that she had framed it and put it on her bedroom wall. I almost exploded when she told me the bit about the frame...I had never felt so appreciated in my life.
So, basically ever since then, I have always carried multiple copies of 'Smile' around with me in my clipboard to give to people I think might need it. Let me hasten to add that I do not and will not use it for the purpose of attracting women. Besides the principle of the thing and the fact that I have to escape immediately to avoid passing out, I doubt it would work. I just hope that, with this poem, I have made someone feel better.