Everyone wants to be happy, but people are going about it wrong

After reading Sherry Amatenstein’s article about how “Everyone wants to be happy,” I was able to apply what she said to my own life on a profound level and provoked some of my own thoughts on how to be happy. It is true, me, along with the rest of the world, yearns to be happy. We try so hard to attain happiness that we even forget to enjoy life in the present.

Growing up, I was never content with anything. That included my grades, my extra-curriculars, my family, and sometimes my social life. This was partly due to my parent’s idea of a “perfect” life. My father wanted me to invest all my time in academics and get good grades so that I could succeed in the future. On the other hand, my mom wanted me to participate in many extracurricular activities to find something I was passionate about. So I had an extremely busy childhood, trying to work hard yet fit all my extra curricular activities into the week. And with my extracurriculars, I never seemed to be good at anything whether it was arts or a sport, so these activities hardly brought me joy.

Although my Mom wanted me to do so many extracurriculars, she still wanted me to be happy. However she believed that my happiness came from materialism. Almost everyday, I came home from school with a gift waiting for me. It could range from something as minimal as a bar of chocolate, to a new IPhone. Initially, I enjoyed receiving all these gifts, but as time passed, I was never content. I learned from this that the more presents I received I became less satisfied, and the less special they seemed to be.

I was so invested in finding happiness that I even invested research into it. I came up with a list of reasons on how to attain happiness.

I thought that by completing and this, I would find eternal happiness. But I was wrong. The most important thing about happiness is that it can never be permanent. So by accepting that fact, and “living in the moment” rather than anticipating for your next vacation or new phone, you’ll find a longer-lasting, but not permanent, bliss.