the [sitting] ovation

Sometimes we are really hard to please. Sometimes we are really easy to please. And times when we are easy to please remind me that there are lots of great things in life to savor.
Mondays are always angsty. Even though today is Tuesday, it was a Monday in that it felt like a Monday. And I found out that I'm failing French, but really everyone in my class is, because my teacher is being slightly [completely] ridiculous and disorganized. Hoping to get that changed. But either way the eyesore will be on my progress report: A, B, A, A, and, what's this? Yes. It will be complete torture. But as part of my civil duties, I must try to eradicate the problem. Follow-up to come, perhaps.
So after that mayhem, I forgot we had a test in French, and I was really just not in the mood. But after that I go to got to APUSH (in case you aren't au courant, that's AP U.S. History. Just to let you know.), which is becoming increasingly more enjoyable.
So anyways, we had to analyze some political cartoons, but we did them as a class, and he would call on people to ask them what their opinions were. So one of them was a pro-expansion/anti-expansion cartoon (we're talking the 1890s and around 1900). Everyone said it was pro. I was the only one in the whole class, except for one kid, who said anti. So I decided to tell my teacher what I thought about the cartoon, and he almost fell on the floor with joy. He said that in 14 years of doing this exercise he has never had anyone say anything like that before. He said that I opened his eyes and that he would never think of the cartoon the same. Then he told everyone to give me a round of applause. A real live standing ovation! Except we were sitting. And the rest of the class period, he kept saying "great work!" Was what I said really that great? No one knows, but apparently he thought so. And he's an ex-Marine colonel, so clearly he means what he says.
But the point is, he turned my day around because he said something so nice that my French problems didn't seem so bad. And I was happy the rest of the day.
Be the light in someone's day. If someone does something great, tell them how great they made you feel. Or just complement someone - just to do it.
Maybe you can even give them a sitting ovation.