“The most striking and most impactful lesson that I learned from my time in South Africa is that happiness does not take much to give but it can do so much. Every single day, every kid that we would meet would run up to us with huge smiles on their face excited to see us another day. The instant an ACE kid was greeted with a smile or hug, I watched my fellow ACE participants light up with smiles of their own. These infectious smiles continued as we jumped around, sang songs, played games, and made jokes. For those amazing but brief hours each day, every person forgot about their worries in the outside world and was living in the present moment with others sharing in happiness. Happiness was the first and most lasting connection that I made with every experience on my trip to South Africa.”