Response

     Happiness

     For the longest time, people have tried to define happiness as if they could somehow find a "cure" for others' loneliness, unhappiness, etc.  Instead of looking at the concept of being happy from a personal perspective, they try to get on top of it like a political or social issue, where happiness is something a person needs to find within themselves over time.  

     Happiness is defined as being joyful, full of glee or delight.  When people try to find happiness, they tend to focus on ridding their lives of negativity which isn't very realistic.  The people who are truly successful in finding happiness are those who cope with the constant hardships and negativity that life is full of, and focus only on moving forward, staying positive, and finding the good in most everything.  

     Too many people try to digest happiness for something it isn't, like a manual to read or a set of instructions.   Happiness is not a concrete concept, it is something unique to everyone in their own ways, and takes sacrifice and struggle to ultimately find.  So many people get caught up in different aspects of life that don't matter in the long run that blind them from true happiness.  If someone is to find an equilibrium of happiness at some point in life they aren't materialistic and don't fret about things that don't have a major impact on us, instead they think in a long term point of view, are generally level-headed, and are usually very driven.

     Happiness also means something different for everyone, whether its spending time with family, being successful, living a meaningful life, having fun with whatever they do, the list is endless because everyone is seeking a different kind of relief and happiness at some point during their life.  Whether their happiness is based off of a materialistic point of view is not long term legitimate happiness.  Where a nice car might fill a void in someone's life for a short amount of time, personal growth and personal happiness will last for much longer and have an everlasting effect on them.

     Although I have only experienced life for 18 years, I feel I have a very strong knowledge base so far to understand how to live a life full of happiness.  I love a nice, fast car just as much as another teenage guy, but I don't let it influence me the wrong way.  Having nice cars for me is on a different level than other people who generally own them, where I appreciate them for their impeccable engineering standards, other people use them to front an image to display to other people of their supposed success in life.  These high end cars provide me with a different form of happiness because they make me appreciate human advancement over time and I just really enjoy driving.  Finding happiness from the image someone displays by having nice things isn't the actual happiness they should strive for.  

     Like everyone else in the world, I've had my fair share of set-backs and hardships come my way but learning to live and cope with them is one of the most key elements to being happy in my eyes.  Happiness isn't the absence of negativity, it's learning to come to terms with the fact not everything goes according to plan and sometimes you have to work for the things you want, like happiness.  

     Happiness is developed over time.  It is worked for, and contemplated.  It isn't something that can be bought or taken.  One must work for it for themselves and figure out what true happiness means to them and what they need to do to develop that over the course of their life.  Once someone has come to terms with the negative influences in their life, their journey to happiness becomes much more clear.