Sitting under the umbrella, hearing the waves rush to the shore and knowing that it may be months before I would get to be with my friends again, I realized that I would be ok. My life had changed so much since I had arrived, four months previously. I had come to an understanding that I had wasted so much time not appreciating the person I was, and focusing on all the things I wasn’t, and looking for happiness by trying to please and be like others thought I should be. I didn’t love myself, and I wasn’t happy. But here, in St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest city in our nation, I had a rebirth, of sorts. I learned that I was enough, as long as I was becoming who I was meant to be, and that being happy was a choice.
Making the decision
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She had so many things going on, and so many places to be. It took early mornings and late nights to get everything done. I came to realize that if I was going to make it, I would have to jump in and get to work. I had to learn ‘the ropes’ and what I recognized was that these ‘ropes’ weren’t going to stop and wait for me to catch up.
First there was “Showtime”, a singing and performing group that my Aunt owned, and I was to be part of. “Are you kidding? I don’t dance and I certainly don’t sing.”, at least not in front of a crowd of 1000 people. But, it didn’t matter that I thought I couldn’t, everyone around me said I could and I would. Just like the preschool book, “I think I can, I think I can, and then the little train did.” I soon saw that, even though I wasn’t the best dancer or singer, and I even had a hard time ‘flipping my hair’ as part of the choreography, I was good enough. It was similar to learning to surf. I had to just ‘catch the wave’. There were practices on Monday’s, performances on Friday’s, and the week was never complete without a service project on Saturday’s. “Showtime” was about working together, and being part of something bigger than yourself.
Next came interactions with others and making friends. I noticed that when I wasn’t so focused on trying to please everyone, and I looked outside my small world; I became a more optimistic and happy person. I learned that others wanted to be
Have you ever truly sat and considered what makes you truly happy? Often times, people answer directly with the response of money. We say this without deeply considering all that we have to be grateful for. Happiness is not achieved through wealth instead through experiences, the family we love, and the nature that surrounds us, literature has created a great impact upon the ideals we consider to create our happiness.
Sometimes it takes people awhile to figure out what they want to do in life. Many people know as kids what they want to be when they grow up. Some people hop from job to job trying to find what makes them happy. I wasn’t the kid who just knew, so I was stuck for a while after graduating high school. I just could not find what I wanted to do or be in life. I didn’t have the drive to do more with my life. My goal was to just graduate high school. I was a kid who was still at home with my parents, and yet to find my calling on this Earth. My life quickly changed when I turned 19 and became pregnant. I knew I had to do more and be more for my child. I didn’t want to be another statistic that fell by the waste side and depended on the government for help me and my kid.
I was born into a dysfunctional family. My father was an alcoholic and a heavy smoker. There were so many financial problems and pure happiness. Everyday my parents would argue about the most minor things. Everyone thought that everything was all roses and unicorns for us, but in reality it was dull and grey. The life I was born into made me want to do things that are looked down upon. Despite all of this my mother was strong and maintained a smile on her face.
During my youth, I always tried to be the nicest person I could be. Today, negativity has become a big part of people’s everyday life. In high school, there happens to be tons of pettiness towards one another. People disliking others, many fights and unfortunate events become the center of all the attention and even bad reputations for people and their schools. The golden rule teaches us to, “Do unto others as you would want them to do unto you.”
When you think of happiness and a good life, what comes to mind? What plays a major role in one’s happiness? What makes a “good life”? Well, that can differentiate between one person and another. To many, “the good life is a financially prosperous life, and happiness lies in the possession of wealth. Worldly success is what counts, and anyone who is not ‘successful’ in the usual sense is counted a ‘failure.’ Others strive for a life based on honor and public recognition.” However, according to philosopher Socrates, who once said “The unexamined life is not worth living” believes happiness is not based off success, it’s based off experiences and the “ability to control your desires and harmonizing the different parts of your soul.”
Happiness is defined as having a meaningful life. I believe that a meaningful life would be defined as understanding the separation of this life and the afterlife. This goes on to engaging and understanding your role in life and effect the world in a positive manner based on that role, yet still strive towards a spiritual connectedness by contributing to the human world in order to achieve spiritual connectedness. This also means finding truth in the world and reasoning that one still needs to work towards a spiritual afterlife in the end but must do this by understanding the truth of the world and educate yourself so that one can also live a virtuous life in the human world and focus on transcending to the afterlife after living a virtuous life.
My life hasn't always been easy, from a young age I have seen more than some kids my age should. My story is not one that is one full of laughter and countless childhood memories,no, mine is one full of tragedy yet resilience because i am not my story my story is only a part of me.
In Forty-five years, the activity theory, filial responsibility, wisdom, and retirement will play a major role in the success of my aging process. These factors contribute to my central source of meaning which is healthy aging. Furthermore, improving various areas of my life as well as maintaining many aspects of my current personality is key to prolonging my status as an active person in society. Consequently, my plans require goal setting and reflections pertaining to my daily habits.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” My family always asked me. If I were doing what I thought I would be doing when I was a kid, I would be in Hollywood by now. I would be on the must see Thursday night comedy/drama show. This was my life long dream until I hit eighth grade I realized I was camera shy. So like everyone else it was onto the next passion, right? It took me until high school to appreciate how strong my passion for space was. Every night I would stare at the moon, more and more. Eventually, My love for the moon became a want to travel to the moon. “I’m going to make it up there one day” I would always say. Until someone my early junior year of high school told me to give it up because the space companies were gong down the whole, and by the time I would graduate I would have no job.
The despairing faces and the exhilarating emotions that overwhelm the room as I think back to how irrational life can be. I notice their hands were reluctantly raised to answer a simple math problem that I had written on the board. Looking around, I have never seen such fragile students that are eager to learn but afraid to speak. However, these are the same students who helped me realize how important it was for me to be in that room. A star that shined bright, guiding the helpless voyagers to shore. I always thought life was linear , where everything increased at a constant slope, but that is definitely not the case. Thinking about the many unexpected turns it can take and how it places laborious weight on a person's decisions and responsibilities My life can be summarized from the last four years, from the beginning of high school to now. I always caught myself walking the halls contemplating my purpose in life and why I felt so incomplete. Until finally, everything fell into place, learning what my heart cared for the most and what and who I wanted to be now. Math has always been something that defines me. Going from being a normal student to a math tutor, it really shows me my own capabilities and limits.
What is happiness? This question has no single answer. There have been numerous articles and books published that researched what happiness is and how to achieve it, all with different findings and variations. I have condensed my findings from multiple articles in this paper.
H,a,p,p,y. Even little kindergartners know that it spells the word happy. But how many people actually know what happiness is? For many kids, it might just be as simple as playing outside with friends, but to me it's not. To me, happiness is knowing that I belong somewhere. Specifically, knowing that someone loves me makes me very happy, and everyone deserves to be loved. When I help bring people’s smile back on their face, I always feel like smiling with them. Lastly, I feel happy when I achieve my goals because I worked hard for it, and I feel very proud because of it.
In life, we tend to try to please people and make them as happy as possible even though we sacrifice the things that truly make us happy. I, like many others in the world, have experienced many occasions where I have sacrificed my own happiness just to make other people happy, or just to see them smile a genuine smile. No one else can make you happy in your life. Intimate relationships and friendship will often offer temporary sanctuary from things like your fears, insecurities, and past experiences that weren’t particularly positive, but if we want to get over these things we must face them all alone.
Early morning, the birds start chirping and the crisp, cool air that glides through the windows awake the whole city. The smell of the bloomed flowers in the garden refreshes, and relaxes your whole state of mind. Sitting comfortably on the wooden porch, drinking hot brewed coffee and listening to the sounds of nature washes all your worries away. With a clear mind, the shining sun that squeezes between the smoky clouds reminds you of a new day. Or perhaps a hot cleansing bubble bath, filled with a layer of surfactant lavender scented foam, relaxing your body from head to toe after a long day of work. In both cases, the relaxing and refreshing routines both exhibit one of the many forms of happiness. Happiness is the state of being happy. Happiness, an important part of the world today because happiness is really all we've got, this benefits not only our personal lives, but our societal lives as well, in this state of mind we can create a more peaceful, energetic, and compassionate world.
When people ask me what is happiness to me I respond with, “Happiness is when you are joyful and accepting of your circumstances as well as when someone is glad that they are the way that they are.” People then ask me, “What is happiness for you?” “Happiness for me is when my family is doing well and that they don't have to bend over backwards to make sure that they get their bills paid on time. And when they don't it lets me feel as though things are going well and it lets me relax a little more and not worry about them.” They then follow up with, “What makes you happy.” “To me happiness is being with friends and having a fun time, Cooking uninterrupted by anyone, making a great dish for dinner. When i'm happy i feel like everything is