People say that ‘misery loves company,’ and I have to say that I’ve found this to be true. I’m a huge culprit of joking about the small misfortunes of my life with my friends and family. Many times my complaints are about the amount of schoolwork I have ahead of me or about the lack of sleep I’ve gotten lately.

More often than not, I have more than enough company in my misery. My friends and I usually bemoan the size of the workloads we have. Our conversations sound like this: “I have that paper and then this meeting and then that test her.” Somehow, just knowing I’m not the only one that’s stressed out by life helps me to get through the many different things I have to do. So in the woe-is-me sense, I have to agree that misery loves company.

I also think that there is much truth in the idea that sharing your serious problems and concerns with your friends makes you feel better. Talking through your difficulties, getting feedback and advice, and knowing that other people care about you are all important in getting you through hard times. So I can see that true misery loves company too, because even if those helping you out aren’t miserable with you, it is nice to know that you’re not alone. It’s not so much that we want our friends to feel our pain, we just feel better that they recognize when we are hurting.

After thinking about how much we all love complaining to each other, I feel that the phrase ‘misery loves company’ is true, but it doesn’t go far enough. I came to this conclusion for the simple reason that happiness loves company too.

Whenever something positive happens that makes me truly happy, I love sharing it with my friends and family. I am always excited to be the bearer of good news and to watch other people take delight in the little joys of life. When I’m happy, it’s not enough to be happy alone. More often than not, I look for others to spread my cheer to.

I can tell that a lot of other people also feel this way. Through everything from phone calls and texting to Facebook and Twitter updates, we all share our everyday triumphs with almost everyone we know. Seeing my friends’ little moments of happiness, even if just through a few lines of text and some exclamation points, adds some happiness to my day as well.

Just as no one wants to be the only miserable person in a room full of happy people, no one would relish being the only happy person in a room full of complaining, crabby Debbie Downers. True happiness really isn’t something that we can keep to ourselves.

It is definitely true that misery loves company, but happiness loves company even more. When we share our miseries, we divide them and make them a little bit easier to deal with. When we share our happiness, it expands and multiplies.

So go ahead, Iona: share your misfortunes and your successes. Let your friends and family help you through the tough times and the growing mountain of work you have ahead of you. Spread your everyday excitement and joys, and let others’ triumphs make you genuinely happy. Because whether you’re miserable, happy, or somewhere in between, it’ll do you good to have a little bit of company.

To contact The Ionian’s Julie Donato, e-mail her at [email protected].