A few months ago I was sitting in the guidance center waiting for some transcripts. I was having one of those "high-stress, low-patience" days and I was just in a very bad mood. As I waited, I noticed a little book on one of the coffee tables called "What happiness is." Cynically curious, I picked up the book and fingered through it. Each page was different quote about what happiness is, and as I read each one, I started to slowly lift out of my bitter mood.
The first one I read was "Happiness sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open." - John Barrymore.
I could buy that, I was starting to feel a little better.
The next one I read was "All who would win joy must share it, happiness was born a twin." - Lord Byron.
…show more content…
"Happiness is going to the 20 year reunion and finding that the boy elected most likely to succeed, didn't."
Needless to say, I felt a little disenfranchised by this one. Having won that category in the yearbook this year, I felt a sudden added pressure. I was now indentured for 20 years to try to succeed in order to keep all of you from being happy. It was a lose-lose situation for all of us.
For a time after, my thoughts often drifted to that 20-year reunion. How was I going to be successful? How was I going to insure I fulfilled my high school yearbook's prophecy? How was I going to be a success?
Immediately, my thoughts drifted to money. Success to most Americans immediately means big houses, hot cars, bling-bling. I had no guarantees to myself that I would be a success. There was nothing I could do but continue to work hard, stay up late writing papers and hang posters my entire life for dances. I didn't necessarily want this.
So I began to question what success is to me. And it's more than the cliche of happiness. What success is to me, could be radically different than what success is to anyone else in this room. It's up to me to define it for me. It's up to me to decide what I have to do in my life to make it a
The American college dictionary defines success as 1. The favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors, 2. The gaining of wealth, possessions, or the like. This has been the general seances for the past hundred years or more. But in more modern days the prospective of success has changed slightly. It has shifted to having a good education, going to collage, getting a carrier getting married & having children. Having your own home and eventually dying and passing it all on to a child or children. Success is no longer satisfaction or personal goals. It has been supplemented by the goals society has preset for the populous that have been drilled into the minds of the young from the very beginning. To a man named Santiago in The Old Man and The Sea by: Earnest Hemingway, success was to conquer the Marlin Santiago had fought for so long. But as a cruel twist of fate his success is taken away in an instant when the prize he had fought so hard for was eaten by sharks, leaving Santiago with no spoils left to show for his hard fight. He was even so crushed by of the loss of the Marlin that he cried out to the sea "I am beaten.....hear stands a broken man" (234). Santiago still experienced success in the fashion that when he returned to port the little boy named Manolin that he had taught how to fish earlier in the novel was allowed to come back to fish with him. This was the ultimate form of success that was perceived for Santiago by Hemingway. To Jean Valjean in Les Misreables By: Victor Hugo , Valjean's success was represented in the form of going from convict to loving father of a daughter. The little girl named Cosette may not have been his true daughter, but after he had had dinner with a bishop that had seen the possibility of good in he started the transformation of his life. he met Cosettes mother and vowed to save her daughter from the place where she was being kept. The success Valjean experienced was what made his character the man that he was. But to Willa Cather in My
Every choice you take with ultimately impact your life. In “The Laughing Heart” by Charles Bukowski the author creates a theme of; your not living until you seize opportunities in life. In “The Journey” by Mary Oliver the author creates a theme of; you have to take the journey to find yourself. In each of these poems the authors use tone and figurative language to develop the overall message.
The studies given as examples and discussion focuses on teenagers and young adults, but includes anyone is struggling to find happiness. Evidence to Support Thesis: Point 1: The level of well-being is emphasized as more people continue to lose track of what makes them happy. Shawn Anchor is reminding people to capture the essence of simple contentment and asking his audience to think about what they value. Anchor’s book provides seven principles that involve having an open mind to becoming happier. Anchor includes other research studies as evidence to his claims throughout the book.
...s “ happiness only real when shared”(189) in the novel Doctor Zhivago. These five words are evidence of Chris beginning to see the folly in his ways as he questions the benefit of the solitude that he so desperately sought out. Chris’ impulsive escapade into the Alaskan wilderness and his lack of preparation and experience shows his irresponsibilities that inevitably led him to his death.
Happiness plays an important and necessary role in the lives of people around the world. In America, happiness has been engrained in our national consciousness since Thomas Jefferson penned these famous words in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (Jefferson). Since then, Americans have been engaged in that act: pursuing happiness. The problem however, as Ray Bradbury demonstrates in his novel Fahrenheit 451, is that those things which make us happy initially may eventually lead to our downfall. By examining Guy Montag, the protagonist in Fahrenheit 451, and the world he lives in we can gain valuable insights to direct us in our own pursuit of happiness. From Montag and other characters we will learn how physical, emotional, and spiritual happiness can drastically affect our lives. We must ask ourselves what our lives, words, and actions are worth. We should hope that our words are not meaningless, “as wind in dried grass” (Eliot).
“Sooner or later in life everyone discovers that perfect happiness is unrealizable, but there are a few who pause to consider the antithesis: that perfect unhappiness is equally unattainable.” (Levi 8) In this short excerpt Levi uses
Gertner, Jon. “The Futile Pursuit of Happiness”. The New York Times 7 September .2003. Print.
Gilbert, Dan." The surprising science of happiness." Ted Talks. Ted. Ted Talks, Monterey. 1 Feb. 2004. Lecture.
Commencement is a critical juncture in our lives; it is a momentous occasion where we believe we are about to start anew. However, graduation is the bittersweet moment where the forces of past and future are simultaneously acting on us. Consequently, the past is not dead. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, suggests that our past experiences will be with us forever as he states, " [we] are a part of all that [we] have met; yet all experience is an arch where through gleams that untraveled world." That is why graduation, similar to other turning points in our lives, possesses two halves, which accentuate each other. We are looking forward, but the "arch" of experience beckons us to remember, value, and learn from our past experiences. Thus, I feel that in order to appreciate commencement fully, we must remember our own past, and in particular, the last four years:
But in this debate, one question still raises its head - What is happiness? Happiness is not actually leading a luxurious life, but the luxury of living a life. Happiness is not actually about expanding your business, but it lies in expanding the horizons of life. Happiness is not having a meal in the most famous restaurant, but having it with your most beloved family. It does not lie in attending honorable parties, but to attend a party with honor.
Today many people think they need various things to be happy. They think they need a significant other, a lot of friends, success in a career, a certain amount of money, the list goes on and on. The poem Cloony the Clown shows that in most cases, these desires cause more harm than good. Shel Silverstein uses significant repetition, visual imagery, and situational irony to express the fact that people shouldn’t depend on certain factors to be happy.
Success is within the mind of the individual. A large portion of ones life is spent working to become successful. People are told throughout childhood to work hard so they can grow up and make lots of money. But success takes many different forms. Different people have different interpretations of what success means to them. For some, success is measured by social status and wealth; for others success is determined only by the amount of happiness one feels.
There are few words that possess a positive connotation to the extent that people will become invigorated and inspired just at the mention of it; Success is one of these words that cause an elaborate collaboration of emotions, which is usually summated by the emotions of elated happiness and paralyzing fear. Along with the emotional reverberation that the mere mention of the word causes, it is also plagued by numerous interpretations. Many times the cerebral vision that society pictures when contemplating success is a prodigious amount of money, with luxury cars and private jets to boot; however, this is a very superficial viewpoint of success, and many of the wealthiest people that inhabit the world are also the least successful. The ways that success can be defined are near infinite, but compiling a large sum of physical possessions is definitely not one of them. Success is the participation in activities and recreation that prompt you to live a life enriched with enjoyment, altruism and a feeling that what you have done and are doing in life is helping to benefit the entirety of society.
Graduation: the last day that I would unwillingly set foot on the fields of Horizon High School. I could feel my heart beating out of my chest, and tried so hard to keep my feet moving one after the other in order to maintain my perfect stature. After the two hour wait of opening speeches, class songs, and the calling off of the five hundred plus names that were in front of me, it was finally my turn. As my row stood up and we walked towards the stage it had set in at last, this is it, I am done. My high school career ended on that night, but it didn’t close the book that is my life, it only started a new chapter, and with it came a whole slue of uncertainties.
and successes as well as many pains, griefs, and troubles in ones life. A happy