Happiness

                Happiness is defined in many different ways and for different people, they see happiness in a different way as well. The ways people are happy are different in many cases. Some people in Africa may be happy with enough food to have a full belly and enough to drink to not be thirsty. For other people with higher standards of happiness, they would need a lot to be considered happy. They would have to get an education, and have their life be perfect and such in order to be happy. For me though, being happy is having a healthy family and a good close family. I would have to have no problems mentally, physically, emotionally, and in every other way. I should have enough food and everything and be full and not thirsty. The dictionary definition of happiness is “good fortune; pleasure; contentment; joy.”

                People are different in what makes them happy. To me, happiness is doing something you really love or enjoy to do. When you are doing whatever that is and you feel like nothing else worries right now, that is when someone is truly happy. If someone likes soccer so much that it is their life and is professional, plays extremely well, and makes a lot of money and is successful, famous and known all over the world but doesn’t enjoy playing soccer, then he isn’t happy. If he likes to play basketball rather than soccer, but has to play soccer for a living, even if it’s for a lot of money, he won’t be happy. If someone is really into cars and just enjoys driving and everything, he is probably happiest when he is speeding down a straight road with no traffic feeling the power of his car. If someone really enjoys music, he or she will be happy doing something that relates to music. He wouldn’t be happy running a large business even if it is extremely successful and profitable if he’s not into it and doesn’t enjoy it.

                The dictionary definition of happy is “Delighted, pleased, or glad, over a particular thing… characterized by or indicative of pleasure, contentment, or joy.” If you have pleasure and are delighted doing art, then go pick up a paintbrush and some paint and have fun with a blank canvas. Happiness is not the same for everyone. Something that makes me happy might not make the person next to me happy, or any other person happy. Soccer makes my friend happy, but it does not make me happy, I’m not into soccer as he is.

                Everyone is trying to be happy and their ultimate goal in life is to be happy, but then they don’t know what they are doing to try and achieve this happiness. This is the problem with a lot of people, they try to be happy without knowing how. I am happy however, when I run for leisure. Sometimes, I just get out and start running to loud music. I like to run along the road and the beach, but not on the sand. I’ll run and listen to music at full volume at a steady pace and I’m happy. I can unwind and forget about everything and just run to clear my head. It feels great and for me, that makes me happy. For other people though, running is terrible and would lead to unhappiness for them. This is just yet another example of how being happy is different for different people.