Personal Essay: The Most Happy Time In My Life

People travel through life with what seems like a single goal: to be happy. This may seem like a selfish way to live, however this lone objective is the motivation behind nearly all actions. Even seemingly selfless deeds make people feel better about themselves. That warm feeling experienced while doing charitable acts can be described as happiness. But what is authentic happiness? There is an endless possibility of answers to this question, and man seems to be always searching for the solution. Although one may reach his or her goals, there is always still something one strives for in order to be happy. In the book Stumbling on Happiness, Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert takes the reader through

Happiness: a Human Disease -- An Examination of the Allegorical Theme of Existentialism in the Happy Man

My childhood may not have been the greatest compared to my peers who grew up with both parents who loved them. I was raised in a broken home, and I mean shattered. I grew up in a house of lies on one week and a “strict” household the other. Let me explain the lies a little bit here. My mother and stepfather lied a lot about themselves and my father. The other week wasn’t really strict it was structured with rules and schedules that needed to be followed, this was at my father’s and

Growing up in a home with both my parents, I was fortunate to be able to spend a lot of quality time with my father. We used to go out together and play soccer, baseball, and ride bikes. I remember we used to play a lot of old school video games and my mother would get pretty upset at the hours we spent playing and not doing anything productive. In my point of view, our relationship was perfect; our bond was strong like any father and son. I was only four years old when my world was turned upside down. My life changed the day that my mom and my dad separated, I felt alone. The process of a divorce was too much for a child that age to handle; it was a hard time for me. Although I had no father figure for about 12 years because my dad moved

When we arrived at my grandparents, the house, like always left me speechless. A tall three story house with roses and poppies arising from the lawn, chickens softly peeping and succulent fruiting trees. The smell of the house reminded me of the summers, I used

Children learn from experience. If a child grows up in a home with two parents who love each other, and who show marriage in a positive light the child will perceive marriage as a positive thing. However, if a child is raised in a home with two parents who fight and eventually decide to end their marriage, the child will think, ?why get married in the first place?? Lloyd Moody, a child of divorce, proves this theory very true. ?I see now that relationships are not meant to last, if my parents after twenty-one, apparently happy years, can?t make it, who can? I am not expecting to get into a relationship and have it last forever.? (Lloyd Moody). This is the way that Lloyd feels a relationship would work out for him in the future, and with good reason. E. Mavis Heatherington indicates that children of divorced parents had roughly double the divorce rate of those from stable families, due in part to "a lower commitment to marital permanence and fewer relationship skills." (Third Thoughts on Divorce). Children of divorce see the pain that their parents feel and often decide early on not to get married. They may also think about the children that they may possibly have in the future and how much pain it could cause them if the marriage were to end in divorce.

Although, I didn’t have the vocabulary to express all my feelings and thoughts, I began recognizing a wrongness between my parents at 4 years old. Growing up with fighting parents, I adopting the idea of personal responsibly because I decided at a very early age that it was my parents own faults they won’t happy. Reexamining the 4 years old’s termed wrongness between my parents in my teenage years, I assumed my parents couldn’t navigate their own feels or they didn’t have the capacity to react positively to the stress within their relationship. Additional evidence, the strain relationships they also had with their own broken extended families at the time showed they both lacked the skills of cultivating and sustaining most close long term relationships. However, my parents both did have longevity in their friendships. My parents broke up when I was six, my mother moved my younger siblings and I constantly after the separation. I attribute my easy acceptance of change to the fact that change is the opportunity for something better, as a child I didn’t have the option of changing my environment from the places I’ve lived in with my mother and various male strangers besides running away for a short time before hunger or my siblings brought me back. The chaotic lifestyle from 6 years old until I was 18 years old, encourages me as an adult to love myself before anyone else. My mother spent years putting herself down, I would never want my children to watch me suffering in my own unhappiness while struggle to care for them then eventually breaking down at times leaving them with no

Back in 2005, my parents concluded that divorce may be the best choice. I didn’t understand what to comprehend or how to deal with anything. However, when my dad moved out I began to understand the emotional and psychological toll. Every Wednesday and Thursday of the horrid week I would spend time with my dad and the rest of the time spent with my mom. After a while, I spent one long and tiring week with each parent. I eventually evolved and saw my dad often and each parent received an equal amount of time with me. Empty, confused, and baffled as I watched my life fall apart.

Having a sense of meaning and purpose to life can come from discovering our life purpose and living out our personal mission and vision. When we are living for a purpose, we can develop a greater sense of meaning for what happens in our life, and a positively correlated topic with this is religiosity. Having a spiritual or religious relationship seems to aid in the cultivation of purpose and meaning. Most of these variables are interrelated and build on one another, and they can be learnt and developed if we are willing to put in the time to grow in these areas .

    It was a bright sunny day and you could hear the birds chirping in the distance. Happiness didn’t get as much sleep as she would’ve liked but she still woke up with a smile, stretching out her arms and legs ready to start her productive day. She got out of bed, brushed her hair, got dressed and made her bed. As she got ready to start her day she said to herself “It’s a beautiful day to be alive.” She went to her mom Joyful’s room and asked, “Mom would you like me to make you some breakfast?” Her mom replied with a big smile, “Actually that would be lovely, some eggs and toast would be nice.” After, she went to her dad Laughter, who was watching a comedy show and asked “Dad would you like me to make you some breakfast?” He responded giggling saying “Yes, that would be delightful.”

I believe that an ideal life is mostly based on happiness. It took me a while to discover what truely makes me happy because in my childhood, I perceived happiness as something unreachable by mankind. Especially, because of my struggle. We live in a world of so much problems and crisis. And. . . I come from a place that’s full of it — Africa. If we think of it, real happiness doesn’t come to us in an easy way. I agree with Tzu’s definition of happiness in his book: a desire or a fortune that remains eternity. According to Tzu, happiness is a fortune just as wealth and fame. Just to be honest, I had once thought that an everlasting happiness I unattainable. But, that was before I discovered that self-satisfaction and contentment results in a happier life. I achieved my happiness after I went through some situations and circumstances that hit my life for good. Before I share my story, I’d like to make a salient point that God is the bedrock of the overflowing fountain of happiness that prevails in my life. Through prayer and hard work I achieved an indescribable life of so many blessings and it all happened in the year 2014.

There are many moments in my life that I consider important. While some of those moments are great, others still haunt me to this day. I have had some bizarre encounters in my life, but none as daunting as the night that I was stabbed.

I’ve said them waking up from a great night’s sleep, when I had plans I was really looking forward to. I’ve also said them when I slept terribly and was anxious about something, or had a task coming up I flat didn’t want to do.

It was August 13, 1923 and at 15 years old you can’t blame me for wanting to see my friends. Though my mother had told me specifically not to go ,but me being my teenage self, I didn’t listen. So now I was cleaning the attic as my punishment and that’s when I saw it.

Thinking back on an event or a day that I would entitle the best day of my life was more of a challenge because to me I feel I had so many, but there was this one day that kept haunting my brain, not letting me suppress it. The memory of my 16th birthday. Now I know you may wonder why I choose this particular day to be my top choice out my 17 years of life, but it was just something about this time that makes it different than any other ordinary day.