My Happiness Of Life

Flurries of snow roiled in motion under the command of capricious, roaring winds. I stood and marveled at the sight as my eyes traced the white balls thudding against the ground and architectures all at once at exactly the same speeds. Particles of snow danced in joyful synchronization in mid December of ‘05. This was my earliest recollection. This was the day I left my family 12,678 kilometers away to come to the United states for the pursuit of a better way of life. I remember sitting on a rusty old bench on the first day of Kindergarten. The sounds of children at play echoed from the playground, stomping and running and laughing. None of the worries of adults crossed their minds, only how to elude capture by their friends. The rhythmic creaking of swings went back and forth, and some kids tried to time their jumps from the swings to the rhythm. I was one of those children growing up who would pry open a brand new remote control car to pull every component apart than play with it. I surmise this is where my love of engineering truly began.

Curiosity, undoubtedly, is one of the universal characteristics of a child. The innate desire to explore and understand comes just as naturally as eating and sleeping. For example, I was eager to discover how my mother was able to play such enchanting melodies on the piano. While she methodically pressed each key, I observed as the corresponding hammer struck a set of strings to produce a pleasant sound. My curiosity and the love of music sparked my desire to learn the piano; thus, leading me to learn and ceaselessly play for the past 12 years.

To adequately explain my immense love of the arts and social sciences, I must first recount my experiences of art and how that experience shaped me to become, and I quote my mother, the “artsy fartsy” person I am today. Like any child, when I was in elementary school, I changed what career path I wanted to pursue frequently. In kindergarten, after watching Bob Ross paint in an afterschool infomercial that a teacher showed (and being so enthralled with it, I nearly cried), I decided I wanted to be an artist. A traveling art merchant who lived in Paris because to me, France was the epicenter of artistic innovation. My mother encouraged me to follow my heart, and I did. I'd won several local art competitions by the time I was ten and life was good. Sadly, by the time I was in third grade, my romanticized view of art had changed drastically. I was disenchanted with the art scene in my town, and I told my mother that I wanted nothing to do with crayons, let alone a full-blown art career. Not surprisingly, I quickly latched on to another hobby, singing. My passion for singing, at the time, was so pure and my talents were limitless. My friends and family told me it was a natural gift, and that I was given a vocal range that rivaled even the best in the business, and I believed them. They fueled my desire to train my voice, to join every local choir I could, and to eventually even travel as far as Los Angeles to showcase my talents. But, I slowly became disenchanted with singing

The Second Noble Truth: The cause of suffering is desire or clinging. Knowing that nothing lasts is a difficult concept to grasp. This truth comes from our desire of the permanence in our lives. The concept of clinging is described by the word tanha which literally means thirst; the thirst for impermanent things in life to become permanent (Haught 50). People commonly attach themselves to things or people or moments in life that will be gone in seconds. This gives people a false sense of security, holding onto things that cannot last. By accepting this truth, one is confronting the fear of perishing (Haught 50). It is important to note that it is this desire that keeps people locked into the idea of rebirth.

Throughout the course of our existence we search for ourselves and what makes us truly happy. It makes sense that when we do not feel happy or content with ourselves that we find a way to change that. That’s where my adventure begins and continues to this day. This entire chapter of my life has been a battle with family, friends, and myself. I still think that no matter what others think my happiness and love for myself is more important. There’s times I let others opinions go before my mental health, I’ve always worried what others think. It may be why I still have problems today with this topic around my parents. The more I grow up the more I realize I don’t have to be what everyone else has labeled me as, I can be myself and be happy.

“There wasn’t a tear in her eye. On the contrary, she was consoling me”, I overheard my father say in Gujarati. Never having witnessed him cry before, I saw his eyes water up for the first time. In that moment I sensed something had gone awry. I will never forget the day my parents delivered the dreadful news to us. “I have a brain tumor that has been causing me to suffer severe headaches,” my mom said. At the age of nine, I didn’t know what a tumor was but I understood that it was making her ill. I was dismal at the thought of my seeing mother suffering but never had I imagined the possibility of losing her. After many assurances from my mother that she would be better in no time, she was admitted to the hospital for the surgical removal of her tumor. Post-surgery, dad announced that the physician had extracted the lime-sized tumor out of her brain. Consequently, I believed I would have my healthy, courageous, caring, and joyous mother back from the hospital. On the contrary, she came home glum and debilitated with surgical staples on her scalp. After days of refusing to allow us to see her in that condition, her health improved and she began to interact with us. Not long after, her days were filled with frequent hospital appointments for radiation. Then came the chemotherapy. With the passing of time, I started to realize she would never completely be her prior self again. The unknown future had her constantly stressed for us children. Due to the changes it had brought to

At first introduction I am seen as perpetually cheerful and high energy. Coworkers, friends and acquaintances recognize quickly that I am fiercely competitive, passionate about my work, and easily classified as Type A personality. It is clear from my Instagram account I am obsessed with the outdoors; from skiing and hiking to mountain biking and camping, I search for adventure as often as possible. My Facebook is littered with photos of my four-year-old’s choice in outfits and silly quotes showing her viewpoint on the world. (“I’m a strong, interpendent woman!” is a recent favorite.) What many people don’t know, however, is the laundry list of traumas and tragedies I have endured. I often get the shocked deer-in-the-headlights look when someone finds out both my parents died within two years of each other. When it comes out that I married young to escape my emotionally abusive mother, just to realize my husband was also abusive, the comment is usually on how courageous it must have been to file for divorce and leave with my young toddler in tow. It is not uncommon to hear the exclamation, “But how are you so happy still?” after hearing of my multiple miscarriages.

I was always such a happy kid growing up. Not only was I extremely happy, I had no care in the world other than my mother making me take a bath. If she did not make me take a bath that day then I would be ecstatic. Who knew that in only a few years, my life would be turned upside down. It all started pretty much the very first day of 6th grade when all my happiness and care free attitude went away. This I would not be who I am today without this experience.

As a little girl I thought I would live a happily ever after life just like in the movies.

Growing up, I had a happy life. I had two of the most loving parents in the world. My mom was the best mom in the world to me. She was so loving, always taking me on adventures to places, and spoiling me with anything that I wanted. My dad was like my best friend; I guess you could say I was a daddy’s girl. He always took me outside in our big back yard to play ball and even set up a swing set for the both of us to swing on in the cool evenings. For 16 years of my life, I was able to enjoy a happy home. Unfortunately, my perfect childhood turned into dreadful teenage years in the blink of my eye.

Growing up I had a happy life,I had a nice home a perfect family and i was healthy . to me my life was perfect,but at the age of 14 everything turned grey , my sunshine has been replaced by dark bulky clouds that made my life darker and dark by the day . I remember it well it was my freshman year of high school, the day of our homecoming parade I was so excited because I was going to walk with FBLA . As I sat there in class counting down the minutes, the hours till it began I remember feeling incredibly light headed .I couldn't even stand then BAM I collapsed to the floor, my teacher standing over me “ Maria !Are you okay can you hear me ??!”

Love is that crazy feeling that everyone gets to experience at least once in their lifetime. From a young age, we are taught mainly by Mexican parents, that having feelings towards another individual meant getting “cooties”. (A children’s term for getting imaginary germs from another boy or girl by either touching them, kissing them, or holding hands.) However, getting “cooties” never had a real meaning. Well, at least not for me. I was a kiddo that was unique. Ever since I was young, I was always being told, mostly by my parents, that love was the best feeling that you will ever get to feel within you. I’m guessing that neither one of my parents got their heart broken because they never told me that love could also break you. That’s what happened with my first love. The first I fell in love with, and the one who broke my heart. Experiencing affection towards another individual and having my heart broken was the time I learned something new.

In his Nicomachean Ethics, the great philosopher Aristotle tried to answer the question "What is the ultimate purpose of human existence?” His ethics aimed to discover the ‘supreme good’ for man which could help him to add real meaning to life. The reason why Aristotle’s work is still considered prominent in today’s happiness studies is because he was the only philosopher in the pre-modern era who saw happiness as the ultimate goal of human existence and that is the reason why his findings can be treated as the ‘Universal Laws’ for happiness. As Aristotle sees it, every goal we set in our lives is a subordinate to another bigger goal which we want to achieve. No matter how deep we get into this goal hierarchy, each goal will be superseded by another ‘more important’ goal and this is the reason why we are never able to experience true happiness. A medical student may want to become a doctor, but his goal is superseded by the more important goal of treating the sick, which in turn is superseded by the goal of earning a living. This could go on and on, but unless the medical student has a goal that is an end-in-itself, nothing that he does is actually worth doing. In order to be happy, we all have to have some goals which are an actually an end to themselves and are set by us just for the sake of being achieved. Unfortunately in today’s day and age it is not really possible to center your whole life around such activities, but you can really inculcate various factors in your life which can help you to maximize your happiness; after all, as Aristotle puts it "Happiness depends on ourselves." Different people have different outlook on happiness, and therefore each person has a different set of ingredients for their ‘happiness recipe’. Relations, nature and mindfulness are the essential ingredients for my happiness recipe.

She called Duryodhana as the blind son of the blind man infront of everyone. In order to take revenge he dragged and disrobed Draupadi in front of the whole court.

“Mrs Dobie, in my heart I am a very rich man. My measly mere possessions are nothing more than a means to an end.” Replied Gandhi,