"Yay!" I shouted happily.

A friend had made cookies, and I was very glad to grab the first one. Almost as soon as I lifted the cookie from the plate to my mouth, a group had formed around the cookie baker.

"Cookies, yay!" shouted one person.

"Yay!" shouted another, grabbing a cookie.

"Yay!" "Yay!" "Yay!" each person called out at they took their cookies.

"Yay!" I sang out again in agreement.

As we stood around munching our cookies (milk chocolate chip, in case you were wondering), LaTonya came over and tapped me on the shoulder.

"You know, that word of yours, 'Yay', it's absolutely contagious," she said, smiling brightly.

I nodded, smiling back. "Yay!"

It seems a lot of people around me have been repeating my words for some time now. I guess I should explain. For most of my life, I've been using fun little words to express my happiness. For most of high school, it was "Nee-ner, nee-ner!" For most of college, it was "Whee!" There have been many others I've used, but "Yay!" is the latest-and the one I like best so far.

I've always hesitated to use my happy word around people that don't know me well, because I've worried that strangers would think my words are, well, dumb. But once I'm comfortable with someone, I might say "Yay!" to them 50 times a day.

Funny thing is, a lot of people say it back to me.

I can understand why my happy word gets repeated. That little word actually makes people feel good. Once someone hears how enthusiastically I shout my word, and they see how happy it seems to make me, they want to try it out for themselves. And once they've tried it, it's pretty hard for them to deny how great it is.

For me, my faith has been a lot like my happy words. I'd like to share my faith with everyone I meet because I've experienced God's wonderful love. I already know how good it feels. But I've often hesitated because I didn't want people to reject what I had to say-to reject me.

I'm slowly learning to take the risk and share my faith. And I've even learned a lesson from my happy words: If I'm excited enough about it, and if I repeat it enough times, it starts to catch on.

As Christians, we all have something that's not only good, but also really important to say. I hope that someday, people will start telling me that my faith is "absolutely contagious," too. Yay!

LaTonya's on vacation. She'll be back next week!

Read more from 'Campus Life Connection'

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