What is happiness to you?
Such a straightforward question that ultimately generates a world of complicated answers. Instead, pause, look around you and ask yourself, what brings a smile to your face and warmth to your heart?
If you’re one to keep up with current events, or have any social media for that matter, you are at least aware that the world is currently in a state of shock and turmoil. Numerous things are happening, and for many, there is nothing to do but send prayers and thoughts to those affected. As simple as it is, our happiness stems from things we unconsciously may take for granted. So in the spirit of being aware of my fortunate life, I made a list of things that I should probably start appreciating a lot more.
- Family, self-explanatory to some, and not relatable whatsoever to others. Though they are some of the people I butt heads with on an all too frequent basis, I cannot deny the appreciation that I have for my family. I am blessed with parents who are willing to make any sacrifice to allow my sister and I to pursue the opportunities we are presented with. And, I am grateful for an irritating know-it-all sister, who really does know 89.37% of it all, and guides me through my endeavours.
- Education. There are countless opinions of how corrupt, sexist, racist, ect., the education system is, but at the end of the day, I am thankful I received an education. Though what is taught in schools may be seen as incredibly controversial for an indefinite amount of reasons, receiving an education broadens an individual’s perspective. I definitely wouldn’t be writing this post, without having learnt proper grammar (which I still am meh at, btw – also i type btw and use lowercase i’s, so, there is be doubt, jk). One can argue if what is being taught really holds any significant value, but they cannot deny the fact that it holds value in raising kids who are more aware of what is going on around them. Or rather, it prompts kids to be more aware, so it’s up to them to pursue it or not.
- Opportunities. A relatively wide spectrum of possibilities are out there, and living here in North America, living in Canada, I have the luxury of pursing them. The opportunities I have are directly tied to my education and family. Receiving a basic education opened many doors to furthering my education and my career. And the countless opportunities I have are thanks to my dad making the decision to uproot the family from India and move them across the world. So I am grateful for his diligence to provide for our family.
These three points revealed how grateful and thankful I am for each of them, and to me it directly corresponds to my happiness. How so, one may ask??? It’s really quite simple! So many things can go wrong in life; I fight with my family, I fail tests and things don’t always work in my favour, but at the end of the day, I have the privilege to reconcile, work harder and pursue new things! It’s a cycle, and though the sun may not shine, I still know that I am blessed with constants in my life, and I will cheers to that kind of happiness.