I create an episode title and description for the week every Sunday night.

My friends and I sit down together, and we decide which experiences that week were most impactful. Some of the moments made me laugh, and others brought me down. But no matter the associated emotion, we create an episode description that keeps the viewers entertained.

It’s one step in how I view my life as a sitcom – each week is an episode and each school year is a season.

It seems silly. Yet, little by little, I romanticize my life.

Romanticizing life is about being mindful and present in your day-to-day experiences. It’s about taking time to notice the beauty and find joy in mundane moments that would be easy to look past or forget about.

You should make an effort to romanticize your life. By doing so, you can make every day better than it was before.

Mindfulness opens the door to romanticizing your life, said Diana Winston, director of UCLA Mindful – UCLA Health’s Mindfulness Education Center.

“I define it as paying attention to our present-moment experiences with openness, and curiosity and a willingness to be with that experience,” Winston said.

You can do this through downloading apps such as UCLA Mindful or attending drop-in meditation classes at the UCLA Mindful Center. These resources are not frequently advertised but exist to support students in their mindfulness journeys.

Winston added that this allows you to show appreciation and gratitude for the small moments. This process can change your life for the better.

“Your relationships become realer and more authentic,” Winston said. “Your day doesn’t just zip by, and you forget what happened because you’re actually there.”

Being present can be difficult in a world where we are constantly surrounded by distractions. Current events pass by without a second thought, the quarter is halfway done before most realize it and there is always a screen nearby to satisfy society’s scrolling addiction.

Still, you can find fun in the parts of your day that you may not expect to.

Jacob Salvanera, a second-year nursing student, also thinks there is value in romanticizing life.

“It makes going about life more fun,” Salvanera said. “You can make the smallest goals feel like the most enjoyable task just because you romanticize it and add a little bit of story to it.”

Chores that would usually be boring – such as walking to class or cleaning your room – can become something you look forward to.

You can find your own creative ways to bring happiness to your day.

“If I ever have something going wrong, I label it as a ‘monster,’ and, if something is going right, I label it as a ‘fairy,’” Salvanera said.

For example, Salvanera said if he has a headache he calls it the “headache monster.” If his sibling fill his car with gas for him, he calls it the “gas fairy.”

You do not need to dedicate a lot of effort to this. Simply reframing small moments in our day can make life feel more exciting.

“I usually like to sit outside my dorm on a bench and knit, or I like to go knit at the botanical gardens,” said Kevin Nakaishi, a second-year biochemistry student.

Making time for hobbies is another way to romanticize our daily life through our schedules. It’s all about finding what makes you happy and finding as many ways as possible to infuse your day with that joy.

I have been practicing this in my own life this school year. I started carrying a mini watercolor set so I can paint when I get bored instead of scrolling on TikTok. I found cute, more quiet spots on campus to sit outside and study. I decorated my dorm room with my favorite colors and pictures of my friends.

And, of course, I live my life as if it is a sitcom.

I take lots of pictures throughout the week to pair with each episode. Consequently, I have many memories to reminisce on. I remember seemingly insignificant moments that would otherwise have been lost.

I see the bad moments as good plot points, which stop me from becoming too focused on the negative. It allows me to laugh and learn from my problems while still seeing the bigger picture. After all, every good plot has conflict.

These small things make the filler episodes of my quarter more enjoyable.

Thus, I encourage you to make your episode description this week about how you started to romanticize your own life too.