I Believe in the Power of Happiness
I believe that if you want to be happy, then simply be happy! The idea of pursuing happiness is backwards. You need not spend your life searching for something that makes you happy, because happiness is not a pursuit, but rather it is a state of being. Happiness is a choice, and anyone can choose to be happy at nearly any moment by choosing that as his or her state of being. I find it important to create happiness out of the little things in life and often we forget how to be happy due to our current day priorities such as money, social status, or appearance. But what many people leave out in life, are the simple things.
My father is a perfect example of someone who creates happiness rather than pursuing it. My dad not only has the ability to create his own happiness, but he also create happiness for others. My dad owns a hotel on Hampton Beach, and Hampton Beach does not always have the best kinds of people. There are the druggies, the criminals, the corrupt and the crude, but there are also people who reside at Hampton Beach because it is the only affordable place for them to live. Recently my dad gave me one of his lessons, usually these consist of driving with good etiquette or how hard work pays off, but this one was different. He started off by saying to me, how lucky I really am. He told me I have a nice home that is warm, I live with two parents, two siblings, and a little puppy, all of whom love me very much. I have food on the table every night, I have a school to go to, and I have the ability to pursue hobbies that I enjoy. Unfortunately, not everyone is as lucky as I am.
In this conversation that my dad and I had, he told me how he had recently rented a room to a man who had just gotten out of prison. The man was imprisoned for the possession of heroin because he had become involved with the wrong crowd of people, but he was a genuinely kind man who had realized his mistakes. He needed a room at my father’s hotel because it was one of the few affordable options for him. During the day the man would go out and search for a job, but not many businesses are willing to hire a man who just had just gotten out of jail due to drugs, but there was one place that was willing to offer this man an interview for a job. My dad knew that this man did not own a car, nor did he own any nice clothes, so on the day of this man’s interview my dad took the man to get a haircut. After, my father bought the man a suit for his interview, and then drove the man to his interview. Thankfully in the end the man received the job.
My father told me that the point of the story was not for me to feel bad for the man who had made some bad decisions that had ultimately changed his life, rather it was to realize the importance of giving people a second chance. He said that although money is tight in our family, and neither me nor my siblings get everything we want, we are still living better than some people out there. It is important that we create happiness out of what we have, such as family, friends, love, and health, rather than pursuing materialistic items like a big television, a nice car, or even a large home. By giving up some of our materialistic items, and instead using that money to provide happiness to others, we are able to create happiness for not only ourselves (because who doesn’t feel good after giving gifts or donating to others in need?) but also for those on the receiving end of it. The small price of the suit and haircut is nothing compared to the happiness this man felt from receiving a job. The job allowed the man to begin to resume the normal life he had had before the drugs, and both the man and my father were able to create happiness from it. I believe it is important to give more than one receives, and I believe that by doing so a person is able to create happiness for both themselves and others.