Jones College Prep

Jennifer Senior discusses her research concerning positive psychology and whether or not happiness is teachable and highlights some of the darker sides of happiness. To start the article, Senior reveals her score on her test from the Authentic Happiness Inventory. The test designed by Chris Peterson of the positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. This test is intended to numerically score ones level of happiness. In a scale of 1 to 5, Jennifer got a grade of 2.88. This indicated she was below average for most rankings such as “age, education level, gender and occupation” (422). Senior states she is at the 50 percent mark for her given zip code. She stated that liking her

Moving to a new country, a new culture, and a new society after 18 years of living in my small hometown was really tricky, especially for a teenager who just got out of high school. Leaving my home and friends, changing my routine and letting go of the simple, insignificant daily things that I used to do over and over again is surprisingly heartbreaking. You see, I was born and raised in Jordan and have lived there for about 18 years before moving here to Chicago. When I first started college here at Moraine Valley, I was a bit scared that I might not be able to fit in with the students or get used to this new culture. I was not a complete ignorant of American culture since I watched a lot of American TV back home, so I did not really experience

As a result of society’s pursuit of extrinsic happiness, society is left feeling unfulfilled and lacking intrinsic happiness; Jones argues that because of our everyday routine we are not taking the time to properly think about the impact we are having on our intrinsic happiness while Kohn argues that students’ preoccupation with preparation for their post-secondary education is not allowing them time to reflect on their intrinsic happiness. In the pursuit of extrinsic motivators, society often ignores what gives them intrinsic fulfillment; it may be because of one’s school schedule - and their obsession with preparing for life - or society’s busy work schedule that contributes to this. In How not to get into college, Kohn explains that students are “ignoring- or perhaps, by now, even forgetting- what they enjoyed doing” (Kohn 7), while this is happening Jones states that their parents are ”Killing the overtime ‘cause the dream is [their] life, refusing to take holidays or go home to [their] spouse”(53-54). Jones and Kohn argue that society is ignoring their intrinsic happiness

One concept of happiness is understanding one’s identity, background, and not lose sight of who you are. This concept is an American thing because in a country full of immigrants knowing who you are as a person is important, and to not forget that even you are when you the ethnic minority in a particular area is even more crucial. Moreover, in America, there are always questions like who you are and how does your cultural background influence you. These questions guide people to explore their identity and find out who they are. This concept is also an Asian thing because the mothers in The Joy Luck Club tells many stories throughout the novel to help their daughters understand who they are.

I was born and raised in the small but growing city of Perris, CA. This isn’t the best city out there but it tends to grow on you, and you begin to truly love it for what it is. The people, however, not so much. The community can vary from which part of the city you’re in. That’s because there’s diversity here in Perris. I’m a product of this diversity, being half Mexican and half African American. My parents fell in love after high school and later on began a family. I am the youngest of five. I have two older brothers, an older sister, and an older cousin who lives with us. The order is boy, girl, boy, boy, girl with my cousin being included in there too. We all live in the same house with my parents and are quite close with each other. They all seem to have raised me growing up due to the fact that my parents were busy trying to provide for us. This was a challenge by itself, resulting in lots of house moving and my father being unemployed for six years after losing his job. I never complained about moving because I knew that my parents were doing their absolute best and were working with all that they had and then some. This unquestionably made me adaptable to new environments and gave me a

The town that I grew up in is Cedaredge Colorado. It is a quiet little town nothing ever happens there. It is a rural community. There are lot’s of farmers and many older retired people who live in Cedaredge Colorado. My neighborhood has many people who live in it. Some of our neighbors are nice and so are total pains in the rear. We put on rodeo bible camps right at my house so there is around 400 different people at my house during the course of the 8 days. My neighbors are very lenient on the deal because of the fact that I know that they get bothered by it  with all the noise and the rodeo’s that go on every day. All together though our town is a fun town to grow up in. Our high school football team won state in 2012 and the band has won

Leaving high school I was consistently in the majority: I co-captained my basketball team and was always welcome to play. In my Bronx experience overall, I often felt racist, close-minded, and self-centered because of the reactions that I was having internally with this new environment. And even more I felt ashamed for this. I quickly wanted to escape back to Ann Arbor to be back in the majority, but I didn’t want anybody to feel bad for me. I knew that what I was thinking was mostly wrong, but I also felt it was human. Large paradigm shifts in one’s life often come with large sentiments, both good and bad. Also, I felt that my experience in the Bronx became easier and easier as I integrated and adjusted. As the shock to my system eased my feelings eased, too. I eventually began to feel extremely connected to the Bronx, the differing cultures, and even my almost omnipresent

Unlike many of my peers, I wasn’t raised in Montgomery County. I was born in Savannah, Georgia on September 10th 1997. After Georgia we lived in Anchorage, Alaska. During that time my now 16 year old sister, Asha was born. After Alaska we packed up and moved to Fairfield, Ohio. My now 11 year old sister, Malea was born there. That’s where I ended up spending almost 12 years there.After moving constantly when I was younger due to my mom being in the Army, it was nice to be stable somewhere. We ended up moving to Gaithersburg after my mom got a promotion in D.C. I started my Junior year at Quince Orchard very scared and nervous. Luckily, I met some amazing people that helped adjust to the move. The move to Gaithersburg made me realize that I

One thing that I experienced due to where I lived and my parent’s social class was the fact that I got to attend a good school district, with updated technology and books. My parents’ success and lifestyle were all the reason to me to be hard worker and do well in school. After high school, I took a break in my education, which set me apart from many others whom I had previously been societally grouped together with. This was the cause of many judgments against me, which was difficult at times. Society’s idea of “normal” is to attend college directly after graduating high school, but society’s normal wasn’t going to work for me as I had became pregnant right out of high school, and felt the need to focus my direction on working and making more money in the immediate.

I was just a small town girl living in Grants, New Mexico. There is a saying that if you blink you will miss it driving down the highway. I was born and raised in Milan; it was just a little portion of Grants. My entire mom’s side of the family lived close by us and my dad’s side of the family was in Espanola, except for my grandma Yolie my dad’s mom. I grew up knowing almost everyone in that small town. The challenge in living in Grants was there were no available jobs. My parents had to drive back and forth to and from Albuquerque. As I was in kindergarten through second grade I would stay at my auntie’s house early in the morning or with my grandma while both my parents were in Albuquerque. Family was everything to me or at least what I

Growing up in this city of Chicago was very nice. I lived on the Westside of Chicago, Hamlin and Augusta. Our community was not a community it was block. The block is the street that I lived one. My sisters and I was able to go to the park until the sunset. We would walk almost a mile just to have fun. We was able to walk everywhere, candy store, school, parties, and mall. All the houses on the blocks where kept up so nice. Every house had a flower bed. There were no boarded up houses. The grass was cut so well, and the brushes were trimmed nicely. You could smell the food that the neighbors were cooking. All the children on the block were able to play with each other. The neighbor would feed the other neighbors children. The trust for the people on Hamlin was very strong because everyone knew each other for years. The early 2000’s is a year that I will never forget. In 1973 my mom was born in Chicago. She lived in the same house that I lived in on Hamlin. As I was talking to my mother she was telling me that her life living in Chicago was lovely. Her dad

In an unofficial poll of students at State University, I found that of the fifty-eight students and one professor, males and females of several ethnic backgrounds and age groups, that I asked the question "What is happiness to you?", all of them had very different physical, intellectual, or emotional motivator for their happiness. Only the

A few months later, I found myself living in the Metro Atlanta area. A completely different territory, Atlanta could be defined as the dance genre of tap. I found myself in a more fast-paced lifestyle, in a city that is not designated to one way of life. A city that is the embodiment of Tap dance, always adjusting to new methods of life, and a city that is never quiet just like the taps on a tap shoe. I felt well prepared and anxious to make new friends. Little did I know that the diversity of religions and cultures would be so intense, so different from my home town. Culture shock set in quickly. Though not raised to be prejudice, I quickly realized how my small home town had afforded me a very narrow view of the world. The culture shock was exactly what I needed to continue growing as an individual. Regardless of the obstacles and dreadful year in 10th grade with no friends and few associates in my school, the change was much needed and has truly allowed me to broaden my perspective of the world. As I continue to avoid confinement to specific cliques, my knowledge of diversity continues to grow. I now have so many friends, from so many areas, states, and even countries. I am thankful for the childhood I had in Tift County, and I am thankful for the opportunities provided to me in the Metro Atlanta area. As I journey through my freshman year at UGA, I am especially thankful for the diversity surrounding me. Athens provides the best of both worlds, with a big city feel in a small town. I do not know where life will lead me from here, but I know that I am being prepared to take on the world, wherever my journey leads

I started to question about happiness in America after I saw a pattern in high school that students are often confused or stressed. I started out with the question, “why is it hard to be happy when being happy shouldn’t be that hard?” To answer these questions, I found Sophie Chan’s 2011 study, “Hong Kong Chinese community leaders’ perspectives on family health, happiness and harmony: a qualitative study.” This study would help answer questions on my audience’s curiosity about other countries happiness compared to the United States. Then I started to think that there were also other issues that friction with happiness in America and

Growing up in the small town of Greenville, Missouri everybody knew everybody. You went to school with the same people all your life. The same people you played sports with were the people you attended dances with and so on. Like I said, you knew all these folks. These were people you are always around, whether you liked it or not.