Achieving Happiness

The semester is almost over.  Four years of my life have come and gone so fast it seems like a whirlwind.  And yet, in the midst of papers and exams I find myself worrying about my future.  What am I going to do with my life now.  I have followed this path that has been laid out for me and it has reached an end.  I am nervous, scared, and anxious all at once.  While thinking about my near future I was trying to determine what it was that made me happy. What do I love doing?  While reading on Oprah’s website I was interested to discover she had an article on this same topic:  “How to Be Happy, Dammit”.   It is here that she informs her readers of ways to achieve happiness.

• Pain exists. Life can hurt. Like, a lot. Even when you’re good, you can get whacked. Without apology, Without explanation. Well, at least not right away. It’s not until later, that you finally learn….

I thought this was interesting. Life can be a bitch and it is not something that is easy.  But, we all learn from the paths that we have traveled down and hopefully we are able to make the most out of our experiences, even if they were not the best ones.  Because it is better to learn something, even from the bad ones, than walk away empty handed.

• Fear works like Interfear—stopping you from getting what you really want/need. All too often you have to be at the end of your rope to be tempted to move through your fear…and go for the unfamiliar, the unknown, to change.

This concept is one that really hits home for me right now.  I am so nervous about being done with school that my feelings are interfering with some of my daily tasks. I find myself thinking about what I am going to do, where I am going to go, and how I am going to get there… these thoughts consume me and distract me from tasks at hand.  Perhaps I will know what I am supposed to do in a few weeks, when I actually am forced to make up my mind… when my I rope has come to an end.  And, finally, another concept that seemed to make sense in my life right now is as follows:

• You must declare your own Independence Day, then your own Independence Year, then your own Independence Life. The purpose of your life is to find the purpose of your life.

  This means: you must listen to your heart, listen to your belly, listen to NPR—but you must stop listening to your shmarents and your shmriends. (After all, just look at their crazy fruit trees!)

  You realize: being who you want to be, and doing what you want to do, is self-respect. But that’s not all, folks. It’s also one of your Pot of Primordial Stew Club Membership Duties. Something even your Pot Mate the flower knows to wisely cash in on. A flower instinctively goes toward the light. It doesn’t spend time worrying if people will mistake it for a weed or if it’s taking too much sun. It wisely and simply follows its primal flower gut instincts to attain its highest level of flowerosity.

  Conversely, you—and your busy, busy brain—have been programmed to think, think, think—and so you have been ignoring your heart’s instincts. Just like that eagle in its chicken days. It’s when that eagle finally followed its heart that her life finally began to soar.

Believe.  Believe in you.  Believe in your strengths, weaknesses, goals, and aspirations.  Follow your heart.  We can be, and do, anything we set our minds to.  During these last few weeks of school I am trying to focus on the tasks at hand.  I am going to try to believe in me more, follow and listen to my heart better and trust that once my rope is at the end I will know where I am supposed to go and what I am supposed to do with the next chapter of my life.

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