Outline
Thesis
statement: happiness is something you
feel because of certain happenings in your life that had given you warmth.
I.
Introduction
A. Quotation
B. Thesis
statement
II.
Body
A. Scholarly
definition
B. own
definition
C. examples
of simple happiness based on experience
D. examples
of simple happiness based on other people’s experience
III.
conclusion
A. obtain
happiness in small, non-materialistic way
B. “the
best things in life are free”
As
of now, to some people happiness is no longer a generic feeling that we feel when something good happens to
us. Rather it is now more often referred to as a feeling associated with
satisfaction by obtaining something that we really want. People have become
more and more materialistic nowadays; they focus more on concrete things such
as gadgets or having various properties, which eventually leads to the thinking
that happiness is to be attained by means of money. There is a saying that says
“Money can not buy you happiness.” Today there are some people who might argue
that this is not true. They would share about the times where they had felt
happy through gaining things that they had wanted. The question now is “Did the feeling last?
How long did it last?” They might have felt happy at that moment of time where
they had got hold of the thing they had wanted. But think about it, after that
time being thrilled with owning somthing they had wanted, do they experience
again the joy that they felt during the moment whenever they remember? I think
not. Thus, money can give happiness but it only lasts for a short period of
time, it is only a temporary happiness.
Compared
to gaining happiness through materialism, I think there is a much better way of
obtaining happiness that could last for a longer time if not forever. It is
obtaining happiness through things we experience, which may sometimes be small
enough that people fail to notice them, but when they remember them those
times, they would have a happy feeling. Gaining happiness through experiences
would make the happy feeling last longer than obtaining it through
materialistic ways.
Happiness
is a very abstract idea, but humans as intelligent species has given it a
definition.
According
to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, happiness is defined as a state of
well-being and contentment. It could also mean a pleasurable or satisfying
event.(2012)It is as simple as that, but it seems so hard to obtain. This may
be because of how people would define happiness. Some might say being able to
have power and riches, which may be hard for some people to acquire, would be
the answer to happiness. But there are still people who are unhappy in spite of
their wealth and power one example of this is Shi Huangdi, the first chinese
emperor to be able to unify China. Being able to conquer much of China and be
the only emperor of China during the time, entitled him as a rich person and
the most powerful person in China during the time. Despite this he still was
not happy with what he had, he became greedy and wanted more in his life making
him unhappy. This case proved that what seemed to be the answer of an
individual may not be true to the other; the definition of happiness varies
from one to another. To me happiness is something that could easily be obtained
and does not need money to achieve it; it could as well be something that we
find in our everyday lives, but just fail to notice.
I
remember a time when I felt so happy; it was when I got sick. I did not know
the reason why I got sick. My vision suddenly went blurry and I felt my head
spinning. I started to vomit. My mom was very worried so she consulted our
physician immediately. I heard her talking over the phone. Her worried tone was
all that had given me the warmth and happiness regardless of the state I was
in. She took care of me for the whole night and she was there to attend to my
needs. Just seeing how she cared so much made me feel like I was the happiest
person in the world at that moment.
To
others it might seem so shallow to say that I am the happiest person in the
world just because of that little thing, but to me it was not shallow at all.
It was the truth. Every time I would remember the incident, I would be really
happy.
I
think that the answer to the question whether or not happiness is hard or easy
to acquire just depends on the person who defines it. It is just like the
saying “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” But in this case saying that
“Happiness is in the eye of the beholder,” would be much more appropriate. To
me, anything in this world that is abstract can only be defined by the one who
sees it, thus making it have a varying meaning to each person.
Happiness
is something I felt with an experience. To the brother of the author of the
article “Where Happiness Comes From” (2012),
it is like having many old cars and trucks that he could fix the engines
or learn how it functions by himself. In the case of the author herself, there
are many things about the farm that made her happy which she cited them all in
the text from the times when she ran in the fields, played in the corn
fields, to the times where she swam
pretending to be the mermaid in the ocean. These were the times that made her
happy. According to the article: “Graduation Speech: Happiness is Success”
simply attaining the plans that been had set would make the author happy.
(2012)
As
shown above, the things that made a person happy may vary. One thing that is common in the examples of
what makes these people happy is that all the examples does not have anything
to do with money. They are considered as the simplest things in life that some
people just take advantage of, but these
things have made these people happy. These things have proven that happiness
isn’t necessarily associated with money. Happiness could be attained by the
simplest things life. I once saw a quote by Coco Chanel online that says, “The
best things in life are free, the second best are very expensive.” This quote
suited well enough to the idea that happiness is best attained by something that
is priceless but meaningful enough to give the person experiencing it the
feeling of joy that would be well remembered by the person who experienced it.
Reference:
Graduation
speech: happiness is success. (2012, July 19). Retrieved fromhttp://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=104555
Happiness.(2012).In
Merriam-Webster.Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/happiness
Where
happiness comes from.(2012,July 19).Retrieved from
http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=46736
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