Jesus Castro
Professor Clemens
English 103
26 August 2014
Happiness
Happiness is a universal feeling. Everyone in the world can experience happiness. Today happiness is viewed in many different ways. Everyone defines happiness according to their personal views. Each person describes their inner feelings in a way that you cannot compare with another. How a person achieves happiness is entirely unique. Happiness originally means experiencing good fortune, pleasure, contentment, and joy. What makes you happy and what makes me happy are completely different things. Whatever feeling happiness gives you is determined by you, and only you. This difference is what makes the human race interesting. Many people believe family is vital for a person to achieve happiness. Close family relationships are very supportive and helpful to the pursuit of happiness. People with cheerful childhoods are more likely to continue being joyful as an adult. Your family creates your foundation for being happy. Family members help you with the pursuit of it, but most importantly they should support you through the good times and the bad times. Relatives are there for you when need them and can act as your mentor. As humans we have the instinct to help those in need. Older, more experienced family members tend to lead the youth to the correct path to prosper. Happiness is social interaction. This can be performed in various environments and occasions, the most common being family dinners at home. For example, in my family we all try to have family gatherings together at any park and enjoy each other’s company at least for a couple hours. Just being able to talk and interact with family you don’t see every day, makes a positive impact in my life. Not all people need family to be happy. There are individuals who had a very tough childhood and family who were far from supportive. These people might find the comfort and love a family would give from friends or in a romantic relationship. There are also people who find happiness devoting themselves to religion. They may lose contact with loved ones but their religion is what makes them joyful. Family is a vital part to achieve happiness for many people but it cause misfortune to others. Some individuals believe that your income and success are the main factor in determining your happiness. Money does not buy happiness. Too many Americans are so blinded by their own ignorance that they constantly pursue happiness as if it was a matter of circumstance rather than their own perspective. Such a way of life is crippling to those individuals because they miss the variety of opportunities for happiness that surrounds them in every way of life. Today, more and more people argue that money can buy happiness. The article “Inner Contentment” gives us a great example why money does not equal happiness. Howard says “there are so many things we want, things we desire. It never seems to stop.” The author is explaining that in our western culture we tend to always want materialistic objects but the more we receive the more we want. The desire for material things leads to greed which makes us unhappy. Others argue that money makes the world go round. They may argue that it allows us to have carefree lives because we do not have financial strain with money. They may argue that it gives people the ability to buy whatever they may want and that causes us to be pleased with our purchase. They may even argue that money allows one to be charitable to others. Even though having money problems might cause unhappiness.