Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Stacy Scucci. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Stacy, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
July 21, 2016
Dear woman who cried with me in the ice cream aisle of the grocery store tonight-
I had a pretty rough week. The kind of week full of self-doubt and second guessing. My body and my heart were both overworked and overwhelmed. Was I worthy?
I couldn’t get myself out of this week-long funk so I took a trip to the store tonight for every girl’s favorite frozen medicine–My solution? A tub of Ben & Jerry’s. As I stared at my options in the frozen section of the grocery store, I heard your unfamiliar voice from behind me:
“Aren’t you the girl with the flowers in her hair that works at Starbucks? You are the one that does The Happy Monday Project, right?”
When I turned around, you were fishing around in your purse and pulled out this wrinkled Monday Project that I gave you months ago. You told me that my little project impacted your life in a way I would never fully understand. You told me that this particular one stays in your purse because you personally know that it has saved lives, including yours. You thanked me and you started crying. I started crying. We probably looked like a hot mess to anyone else in the aisle with us, but it was such a beautiful moment to be a part of.
I never even got your name, but I wanted to thank you. Thank you for your words and your connection. Thank you for finding me in your daily travels and sharing your story with me. I don’t know if you believe in signs, but I truly believe that we were meant to connect at this exact moment, even if it was just a brief, yet profound encounter.
This random closeness with strangers is what makes The Happy Monday Project so incredibly worth it. It serves as a concrete reminder not only for the strangers I connect with, but also for myself:
You are worth it.
You are golden.
You’ve got this.
You never know who needs help to stay afloat. Share a smile. It can be a lifesaver.
I wrote this open letter to a woman that I shared a magical moment with in 2016, and I have had countless encounters like this one since. I cannot tell you if my project will change the world, yet, but I can tell you this story about a woman who decided she was going to take her own life but now sleeps safely with a lifesaver in her bag as a reminder of a stranger who was there for her when.
This is hands down one of the most important Monday projects I have ever done. It’s simple but it tends to hit the hardest. On a piece of kraft paper it says, “You never know who needs help to stay afloat. Life is tough, but so are you! You are not alone. Don’t let yourself sink. Share a smile. It’s a lifesaver.” Taped in the middle is a lifesaver mint. I also recently began putting the suicide hotline number underneath. When I make any project for a Monday, I typically create 100 to give out to strangers who need a start-of-the-week reminder that they matter.
Let’s just say you are like me and are not crushing it today. You set good intentions for the week and even though it’s only Monday, your to-do list already seems daunting. You’re exhausted. The ignored dishes are filling the kitchen sink. The clothes are in the dryer for the third time. Your bank account feels particularly light. You truly feel like you are running on empty- just like that low fuel light that you have ignored for days. You were up all night with sick kids who need you. You are late to work. Every single thing seems overwhelming and you are overworked and don’t even know if you can make it through the day. Then a stranger throws you a genuine smile. They don’t know about any of your troubles but they are truly moved when your presence hits the room.
Sometimes all you need is to have another soul look you in the eyes and say, “Thank you for waking up today. In a sometimes cruel world, I see you.” I am a firm believer that every flower must grow through dirt. When your world feels like a cold, harsh place- BLOOM ANYWAY.
Maybe you experienced a magnificent start-of-the-week revelation today. Maybe your biggest accomplishment was getting out of bed. Where ever you are in life, it is right where you are suppose to be. I want the strangers I encounter to embrace that. You are allowed bad days. You are justified in your struggles. I want you to know that you are seen, heard, loved, and understood. Being an adult is literally jumping from feeling like you are on top of the world to feeling like you cannot take another step. Just take a breath! You are alive and you are doing the damn thing and for that, I am so proud of you.
My heart is bursting at the seams and I cannot wait to see what miracles tomorrow will bring. Monday is coming…are you ready to shine brightly?
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Dynamo- My last words will undoubtedly
spark your awkward laugh
followed by a crooked smile
starting the day with unusual initiative,
I am on a mission for a glass half-full.
Happy Monday.
I kicked off the first Monday of 2015 by handing out fresh flowers and positive vibes to those around me. Attitudes are contagious, and it was incredible to see how quickly I was able to brighten someone else’s ordinary day with only the smallest of gestures. As each week passed by, I turned it into my personal mission to see how many people I could get to smile back at me every Monday morning.
The project quickly evolved from a personal mission into an entirely new lifestyle. I now spend days preparing with hundreds of “Happy Monday” stickers, countless handwritten notes and 50-100 little pick-me-up gifts to give out to strangers each and every week. My efforts to get people to be as stoked about Monday as they are about Friday have proven difficult on some days, but the positive feedback has been so encouraging.
My name is Stacy Scucci and I am the Dynamo behind The Happy Monday Project. (Dynamo is an anagram for Monday and means an extremely energetic person.) I am known by many as “The Happy Monday Girl” who wears flowers in her hair. The Happy Monday Project is purely a personal, passion project of mine. I have been spreading love and light every Monday for eight years and there is no end in sight. By day, you can find me magnifying the little mundane miracles in this beautifully imperfect world. By night, I am working hard coming up with ways to empower the world to surrender their negativity and instead, practice reckless optimism as they start each week. There is nothing I love more than getting strangers to flip the script and give Mondays the chance they deserve. Mondays are a chance for new beginnings. Anything can happen! You have just as much power on any given Monday to do something different and start fresh as you do at 11:59P.M. On December 31st. I am so committed to making people look forward to Monday morning using only the power of my voice and my positive energy.
Every week, I create and give away around 100 handmade written notes of encouragement accompanied by little pick-me-up gifts to help strangers start off the week on a positive note. The time is not tomorrow- the time is NOW! The news and social media sensationalize grief and ugliness. I challenge strangers to stop feeding into the negative energy, turn off the news, and love! Hold the door open for a stranger, buy a cup of coffee for the beautiful soul standing in line behind you, and smile at someone who looks like they need encouragement. You never know who needs help to stay afloat.
The world is changed by your example, not your opinion. You will never influence the world by being just like it. Some days, you just have to create your own magic. Stay fierce. Stay kind. Seek my energy out on Mondays and I promise to make you smile. I’ll be the one with the flower headband and endearing enthusiasm. Mondays don’t have to suck!
There are 52 Mondays this year and how you spend them is up to you.
Start off the week knowing how powerful you are. Monday is coming…are you ready?
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
While I do get a lot of positive feedback from strangers about my project, I also encounter a lot of strangers who simple do not understand why I think I can change the world’s view on Mondays. Why bother? I had a conversation with a man in line getting a cup of coffee once. As he walked away, I told him to have a Happy Monday. He just stared at me and said, “Why would Monday be the best day of the week? You’ll never be able to change my mind- I will begrudgingly get through today and I’ll just be happy when Friday comes.” I just thought, “Well, sir….Stop waiting for Friday. Settling is the art of finding the easy way out. In ten years, make sure you chose your life- never settle for it. Life is too short to do anything but live your truth and follow your bliss. Be your own hero. Don’t let Monday be the villain- everything that you are is enough. Be you, Bravely.”
My heart is so heavy by all the death, hatred, and brokenness I am hearing about constantly. The news and social media sensationalize grief and ugliness. The world is changed by your example, not your opinion. All of the disgruntled tweets and Facebook statuses’ are not going to change a damn thing. Turn off the news and love! Spread kindness wherever you go. This divided country of ours could use a little more of it. Life is precious. Don’t waste a minute of it. Love yourself, love your friends, love your neighbor. We may live in a cruel world and it can be a dark place, but love will always win if you never stop chasing the light. There are 52 Mondays this year and how you spend them is up to you. Start off the week knowing how powerful you are. Happy Monday- PASS IT ON!
Have you ever had to pivot?
My efforts to get people to be as stoked about Mondays as they are about Fridays have proven difficult on some days, but the positive feedback has been so encouraging. I have found that most people expect Mondays to be lousy. Garfield even made a career out of hating Mondays.
My mission is to empower the world to surrender their negativity and instead, practice reckless optimism as they start the week. In my experience, some of the most profound encounters begin with just a tiny moment of intense eye contact followed by a smile.
An important lesson 2020 and the pandemic taught me was that you can always change lives- even from a distance. I spent the first five years thinking that it was the physical hugs and energy that truly drove The Happy Monday Project. When the world shut down, I had to learn that you grow through what you go through and beautiful things grow in unexpected places. I made face masks that said “Happy Monday” so that strangers could see my message even from six feet apart. I wrote encouraging messages with chalk on sidewalks, parking lots, and windows. I went virtual with my project and was able to reach strangers behind a screen. I made a kind of crazy promise to the internet that I would send my Monday Projects to anyone who needed some encouragement- no questions asked. Before I knew it, I had an full inbox of strangers who needed a pick-me-up to lift their spirits. I was able to mail over 100 projects to strangers which allowed me to reach further than ever before. When the world began to open back up, I invested in a laminator so that projects getting passed around could also be sanitized.
2020 was weird. When times change, don’t give up. Improvise and adapt.
When the pandemic hit, I was forced to get creative and fight harder than ever before to brighten strangers’ days with the smallest of gestures. Even if I couldn’t see the smiles through the face masks, I made it my personal mission to see how many people I could get to smile on a Monday morning. Viruses are contagious, but so are attitudes. You never know who needs help to stay afloat. Life is tough, but so are you. You are not alone. Don’t let yourself sink!
Sometimes, all you need after a super rough time is to write out all of your frustrations onto a scrap of paper, fold it into an origami boat, ship it off to sea, and get over it. It’s just a bad day, not a bad life. Tomorrow is a new day and I promise that it is worth it.
Contact Info:
- Website: thehappymondayproject@gmail.com
- Instagram: happymondaygirl
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/thehappymondayprojectgirl
- Twitter: Happymondaygirl