Captured Thought: What is Happiness?

This past week, as I look back at my old essays from junior year, I stumbled upon a word that I have used many times, happiness. The essay I wrote was about the American Dream and how people pursue the American Dream and their happiness. Throughout the essay I must have used the word nearly fifty times. As I read the essay, I can see my opinions on happiness have changed since last year. I have thought a lot about the word happiness and what it means to me. The Declaration of Independence states our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but what does it mean to pursue happiness?  What makes me strangely happy?  Throughout the week, these questions were constantly throbbing in my head.

How did our founding fathers know to put the words “pursuit of happiness” into the document? Last year, I believed that pursuing did not always guarantee your happiness. Everyone has the right to pursue their happiness, but that does not guarantee your success in reaching it.  People have a god given right to seek out things that make them happy.  If people do not achieve their destination it results in their downfall and depression.  What I realized now is that it is not the destination to your happiness but the journey. You have to stop and look around and take in all the beauties the world has to offer.  If they only pursuing that single dream they will miss out.

All my life I have searched for a single goal that would me incredibly happy. An ultimate dream that would be a life changer and something I can pursue.  I believed that pursuing that dream would be the only way of finding true happiness.  As I learned from this year, people are only happy when they are creating something.Many professions like doctors, engineers, and teachers are able to create making there jobs more enjoyable. They are able to create smiles, materials, and expand the knowledge of students.  All my life I believed in order to be happy I need to pursue a singular grand goal that would create an ultimate happiness. Now I realized when I create I will truly happy. Only focusing on a singular dream will distract me from experiencing life.

I learned that it is the little things in life that makes me happy. When the Declaration of Independence talks about pursuing happiness it is not a singular goal or dream that we have to pursue in order to achieve happiness but being able to have to freedom to experience all the little things in life. The little things  like eating a creamy irresistible twinkie or just loafing.Although the definition of happiness varies from people to people, if people stop and admire the tiny things in life, they will certainly be happier than before.