Choose Happiness
As the garage door opened slowly, I stood there with my jaw dropped in awe of such a beautiful car. I was smiling from ear to ear as it was slowly backed out of the garage and came to a stop. Sitting there in front of me was a gorgeous 2012 Orange Camaro, also known as my ride to prom. After driving a minivan most mornings, this ride was a sight for sore eyes. The owner started giving me all sorts of rules and double checking that I knew how to drive the car, but I didn’t complain. I was so excited as he gave me the keys that I about fainted when I got in the car to drive it. Getting to drive this car was one of the happiest moments of my high school career. We can all think about big moments in our lives that bring us great happiness. Like winning the big game, being elected to an officer position, or finding out that the big test was cancelled. When we come across these moments it is easy to find joy, but these big moments do not occur every day. Day to day happiness is less about these big moments and more about a choice each morning. Throughout life, we can find happiness in a variety of things, or we can choose to complain and be miserable. The choice is up to us, but if we seek joy, pursue our interests, and choose today, happiness is within our grasp.
I live in the middle of nowhere. But really, I live 17 and a half miles from school, and a trip home, going the speed limit, takes about 25 minutes. Every school day, since my first day of kindergarten, I have taken that 25 minute trip into town and back home. During that time, I learned that there are three main ways to get to my house; the blacktop, cross country, and the hills. Going into town via the blacktop was not very interesting and typically we only went that way if it had been raining. It had one or two left turns and the scenery was like any other highway. The cross country route was slightly better. The scenery was great and my sisters, dad, and I played more games of I Spy than I can count, which was tricky moving at high speeds. We would sing the country songs on the radio to keep from getting bored. At Christmas time we would hunt for Santa’s reindeer. However, when I was little, the hills route was easily the most entertaining way to get to school. The best part of taking the hills was getting to fly over the hills. About halfway into town we would turn onto a two mile stretch of road where two hills rose high above the landscape. Anytime we turned on this road we would start cheering as my dad would speed up the pickup in anticipation of the first hill. All of a sudden we would get to the top and our stomachs would turn upside down like on a rollercoaster. When I was a kid, we would called that feeling tickling our tummy and it was the single greatest moment of the ride. Immediately we began down the huge hill trying to recollect our thoughts before heading up the next one. Once we reached the bottom, the truck again sped towards the top of the next hill. Once reaching the top we would fly over it and again tickle our tummies making all of us laugh and cheer out of excitement. Those two moments made any 25 minute trip into town well worth it because of the excitement and happiness that we felt. Our ride into town could have been the most mundane and lifeless part of our entire day, but instead we made these trips fun and something I remember to this day.
In life, it is easy to complain, but if we seek out joy we will likely find more happiness.
Each morning my sisters and I got to choose which way we could go into town. We had three choices, but we almost always took the hills. Every morning we also are given a choice; we can choose to seek out joy and look for the things in life that give us energy, or we can complain and waste our days griping about our circumstances. Which path are you choosing each morning? Are we walking to class in the morning head down, sulking because we had to get out of bed? Or, do we walk with a smile on our faces excited to have the opportunity that many kids across the world do not? So many people gripe and complain and make excuses for their days, like I did not get enough sleep, or I just do not feel like it today. Not only are these excuses making them miserable, they are also robbing joy from other people’s days. I am normally a morning person, but I dreaded going to my 7:30 biology class twice a week, and it was not because I did not like the class. My lab partners spent more time complaining about the class then they did learning in it. Knowing that I had to go to class with those guys made it extremely hard to roll out of bed. Because my lab partners complained all the time, it was one of the worst parts of my last semester at college. Author Carlos Castaneda said, “We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.” The path to making ourselves strong starts with a choice, each morning. We have the ability to make each day great, if each and every morning we can choose to seek joy no matter the circumstances.
Sometimes though we may be seeking joy, we might not be happy because we are looking for joy in the wrong places.
During the start of my high school years, I had all kinds of fun with my friends. I would hang out with my bros after football practice, and after games we would go to the Baldwin’s for pancakes, no matter how tired we were after the game. I ate somewhere else for open lunch most days just because it was not cool to eat in the lunchroom where meals were so much cheaper. I spent so much of my high school years just doing what others wanted to and not what made me happy. So my senior year, when my counselor recommended I take Engineering 101 I was a little bit afraid because none of my friends seemed to show interest in the class. Reluctantly, I enrolled at the request of my counselor and parents. The first day Mr. Molleker outlined what would be happening in the class over the semester and I remained uneasy about taking the class. I found myself liking the class a little bit more each day and we finally got a chance to build a t-shirt crossbow. The class of four people worked on it for two solid weeks and when we were finally done, the crossbow was 4 feet long and 3 feet wide with about 20 feet of bungee cord. To be launched, it had to sit on a swivel point and took 2 senior boys to pull back into launch position. Finally we got the chance to test it at the last basketball game during my senior year. As I pulled the pin, the t-shirt launched up into the top section of bleachers at the Marion gym, overshooting our intended target. After we launched the shirts, the crowd roared as we disassembled the crossbow to put it away and everyone in our group looked at each other smiles covering our faces. We had each worked so hard and we were so happy that others appreciated and celebrated what we loved doing.
We have to be ourselves and do what we love to find true happiness.
I am a big teddy bear. I am very analytical and even Calculus-loving. I am a picky-eater, sorry mom. And I am proud of it! We must be proud of who we are! Imagine the difference if we go through life, proud of who we are and excited at the prospect of a new day. What we love doing may be completely opposite of what our friends love, and that is okay! Especially in high school, it can be hard for us to be okay with the idea that we are different. How often in high school do we take part in activities that we do not enjoy just because our friends want to? Why do we spend so much time pursuing what others want instead of spending time doing what makes us happy? Sometimes we want nothing more than to fit in, but Dr. Seuss asks “Why fit in when you were born to stand out?” We all have greatness inside of us. That which is found deep inside of me is different than that which is inside of each of you. It changes from person to person, but that does not make one person wrong and another right, it makes us different. It makes us special. If we are not pursuing what we love, we cannot find our own happiness.
In the big picture we choose to pursue happiness by following our interests, but we are also given the opportunity to embrace happiness daily.
I have had the opportunity to go whitewater rafting 5 different times, but my 4th trip I distinctly remember because I went cliff diving. Our guide told us there were two spots where we could jump: one was a 25 foot cliff and the other was slightly little shorter. Upon hearing this everyone cheered, but I was a little bit nervous. I wanted to have the opportunity to make that once-in-a-lifetime memory, but I was afraid to make a jump like that. As people climbed out of the raft, fear got the best of me and I decided that I might just wait for the smaller cliff to make this certain memory. My guide urged me to go until I finally hopped out of the boat and climbed to the top of the cliff. When it was my turn, I took a deep breath in to calm my nerves then made my way to the edge of the cliff where I took my leap of faith. For what seemed like minutes, but was only a couple of seconds, I plunged down the 25 feet and hit the water with a splash. When I came up for air, I was cheering and pumping my arms in the air asking the guide if I could go again. All I wanted in that moment was to go again and again to keep reliving that jump. As I climbed back into my raft the guide was cheering for all those who had jumped and told us that we were not going to get to jump at the second spot. By waiting I had almost missed my chance to do something I will never forget.
Do not wait to choose happiness, start today.
Tomorrow is a mystical land where 99% of all human productivity, motivation, and achievement is stored. If you are like me, you probably cannot even count the number of times that we have said that we can do it tomorrow. Dale Carnegie, a leadership development expert said, “One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.” We so often do not enjoy the roses that are blooming today because we can be so stressed about catching up and doing what we put off. Even here at convention we hear all these perfect ideas to implement, but never actually do anything because we choose to wait. So do not wait until you get home. Recognize the roses around you and start choosing happiness today. What are the roses in our lives right now that we are not embracing? Maybe it is an experience we have never considered before, or spending a couple more minutes in honest conversation with our friends. What is stopping us from embracing those moments? Is it fear? Is it pride? Is it a lack of motivation? These moments hold the key to unlocking happiness, but only if we get past our fears and embrace them.
Every morning we wake up and given a multitude of choices; we can choose to seek joy or complain all day. We can pursue that which we love or just go with the flow. We are faced with these choices today so we must continue to embrace them on our path to happiness. We are all human. Sometimes we have tragedy in our family, get in an argument with a friend, or get a bad grade in a class. Some days we just cannot make it happen, and that is okay. So do not go out and try to put on a fake smile, synthesized happiness is not as potent as true happiness. However, those days are a minority, and we are given a choice the rest of the days of our life. Groucho Marx, a comedian realized the importance of happiness. “Each morning when I open my eyes, I say to myself, I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow has not arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I am going to be happy in it.” So, what are you choosing each morning? Are we making the most of our days? Or are we just letting them slip away waiting on happiness that is passing us by? As we go throughout our lives seek joy, be yourself and choose today to start making a difference. With each day that we are given, Kansas FFA CHOOSE HAPPINESS!
“For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. –Steve Jobs
