What is happiness?

What is happiness? Happiness is an emotion, a feeling when one experiences contentment, love or intense joy. It is a gracious gift, a miraculous feeling and an overwhelming emotion. Not everybody can achieve happiness, not even by mere success. For example, a successful businessman may not be happy with his life even though he possesses heaps of money and riches that can last for generations. In my opinion, one leads a futile life if he or she has never experienced true happiness.

My idea of happiness is simple. It is when you are willing to take an initiative to observe and appreciate the little things in life and not to be ignorant whatsoever. How many of us actually feel thankful and fortunate that we are still able to wake up every morning to face the day’s agendas? For all we know, we could have lost the chance to see daylight due to some unpredictable events, and yet we complain about how life can be so insipid and mundane. Happiness can be obtained by observing the beauty and serenity of nature, and awe at the wondrous works of our Creator such as the sound of the falling rain, the chirping of birds and the changing of colours of the leaves.

Happiness is when you place a smile upon another person’s face. Even by taking small and not-so-noticeable actions such as helping the others, you can make their lives less burdened in different ways, and hence the smiles on their faces. An example is shown in the recent unfortunate event of the Haiti Tragedy, where more than one million had been made homeless and two hundred and thirty thousand died. Many volunteers had made their way to the doomed city, and selflessly helped those who became victims of the calamity. Happiness is also when you help the others to see life in a different perspective and to be optimistic because life is not just about achieving comfort and luxury for yourself, but to make it meaningful and worth to live. What is life without hope and happiness anyway?

In most cases, happiness is experienced when one achieves something in life, may it be success in education, work or family. Happiness is felt in these cases because you know you have worked hard for it and your determination is paid off with success. Your mindset has been fixed so that when you achieve something you desire, your most natural response is to feel happy and joyous, to feel satisfied and contented. However, success does not come by mere determination and integrity alone, a person requires much love and passion in what he does so that he’s happy with what he is doing.

To be happy is when you know you have the ability to love, and to be loved by others. We are fortunate that we are able to show our genuine love and affection towards our family, friends or even the love of our lives. Our pure and everlasting love shows that we can live with people in great harmony, to receive joy in doing things together and to understand our loved ones, give them the support needed just like how they have given us theirs when we were in need of help. It is self-satisfaction when you know there will always be someone out there who will definitely be with you to the end and back you up whenever it is needed to be done. One of the proudest moments of our lives would be seeing our loved ones achieving their own success in life, and in the meantime, we share the same happiness as they do.

Experiencing happiness is the greatest feeling one can ever had. Though every individual has his own idea of happiness such as owning a grand mansion, a bottomless pit of money or a celebrity life, I am glad that my idea of happiness does not require such criteria. I am already contented with all that I have and I think that one can only gains happiness with a sincere heart.

Cristea Lucian George

Grupa L131,

Romana- Engleza