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Prof. Douglas
Imani Jackson
UWRT 1101-090
September 2, 2014

My Belief in Happiness
For the most part, I am not as happy as I now believe that I should be. I have a lot of
things going for me in my life that other people would appreciate greatly. I have a roof over my
head, food to eat, clothes on my back, a loving family and a pet bunny. I am attending college to
have an even better life later on, which is the best opportunity Ive been given. I believe life is
too short to reflect on the bad things in life; happiness can be found anywhere, and that is what
living is all about.
My belief of happiness influenced me not to long ago. As I got older, life started to get
harder for me. Stress and anxiety started taking over my body, forcing me to get on medication
that I did not want. College work and mid-life problems started to take their toll. I started to
believe that my parents did not want to take care of me after I moved out, since I was supposed
to take care of myself. I also thought that maybe I couldnt pursue what I wanted in life because
of the rough start I had. Reflecting on all my issues only made it worse for me. A therapy session
I took a while back in my beginning college years enforced the word gratefulness into my head.
Even though I was going through what seemed like hell, it was actually the beginning of a great
opportunity. At the time, gratefulness did not seem like an easy enough word to catch on to; so I
changed it into happiness.

My belief really reminds me of the movie, The Book of Eli, because Eli knew and kept
what made him happy. The Bible kept him going when times were even tougher than mine,
which makes it a great example to prove how much a meaningful belief can help you progress.
I take full seriousness in my belief of happiness and try to enforce it every day in my life,
as well as others. Times do get hard for me, and I tend to forget about what makes me happy. At
times where I cannot see the happiness in my life, I put it into others. Giving someone a hand or
helping them get through an emotional time often gives me a little hope for myself. My usage of
happiness, reminds me of Randy Pausch, and how he achieved such great things and looked on
all of the bright sides while diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He gave the message for people to
always find joy in life because you never know when it will be taken from you.
The word happiness changes and probably will always change, since it varies from
person to person. I believe the whole moral of happiness will not change. People will always
have faults in their lives that will reflect on bad habits and bad outcomes which make them feel
like there is no happiness. Some people take longer to find happiness in their life, while some
feel as though they will never find it. Then, there are people who always have happiness through
thick and thin. Ones who continuously take happiness to heart and want to live their lives to the
fullest before their time is up. It varies between individuals, because they could have certain
types of events that cause happiness. Spending time with friends and family, buying clothes and
shoes, rescuing animals, giving back to the community are some ways that can make one happy.
For me, I personally find happiness with animals and the good in society. Being around healthy
living creatures really warms my heart and gives me motivation to continue to carry on with life.
Finding good in people and getting close to those I meet gives me friends to lean on through

tough times. Finding the mechanism that makes you happy should always matter to you and will
always be there whether it changes or not.
Happiness is a warm, fuzzy feeling in your body that makes you smile endlessly.
Happiness is an emotion that is never looked down upon; but encouraged. Something that
motivates and protects ones life through the struggles it gives; and gives hope for mankind. That
is why I take happiness to an extreme belief because it is a very powerful emotion known and
wanted by all.

Citations
Silver, Joel, Denzel Washington, Broderick Johnson, Andrew A. Kosove, David Valdes, Gary
Whitta, Atticus Ross, Gary Oldman, Jennifer Beals, Michael Gambon, Mila Kunis, Ray
Stevenson, and la T. F. De. The Book of Eli. Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2010.

Pausch, Randy. "Randy Pausch." Carnegie Mellon University Randy Pausch's Web Site. Web. 1
Sept. 2014. <http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/Randy/oldRandyPage.html>.