The winter, especially in Erie, gives me the blues. Our big breaks are over and our “Spring Break” is in February. I walked around in a bad mood a majority of the time while my work piles up and I am desperately trying to keep my head above water. I have been having a particularly hard time recently until I was pleasantly surprised by a funny e-mail.

I am sure about everyone has seen the video ‘Christian the Lion.’ It was featured on ‘The View’ last year and it is a story about two men who used to own a lion, but it increasing grew to the point where it was an obvious danger to them and everyone around the lion. They had to release the lion into the wild, and a year later they went to find the lion in Africa.

The video shows footage when they used to own the lion and then footage of them finding him in Africa. He is now the head of his own pack and, as stated in the video, is married. Again, I am talking about the lion.

While this is heart-warming story, I distinctly remember the first time viewing this. I was home in Pittsburgh and the person showing me was very emotional about it and assumed I was going to be the same way. Watching it with her, I could feel her eyes on me as she waited for my response. As Whitney Houston’s hit “I Will Always Love You” blared in the background as the mature lion and his previous owners embraced, I started laughing until tears began to flow.

Trying not to offend the person who showed this to me, I was trying to keep it bottled up inside but it was a challenge at which I definitely failed. I carried on for about 20 minutes. It was, to this day, the hardest I have ever laughed. A couple days ago, the same person who viewed it with me the first time e-mailed me a link to it and said “Ran across this video today and thought of you.” It made my dad and the memory of that, in my opinion, hilarious day cheered me up when I really needed it.

I encourage everyone to find their “Christian the Lion” video to cheer them up during such a depressing time.