Happiness

Whenever my mind becomes cluttered with complaints, I open my eyes. 
It's too easy to focus on the objects we don't have, the places we've never been to, the intellect not yet developed, the people who have left our lives… we're too busy peering down into our apparent voids to give ourselves a chance to look up and check out the riches around us. Our energy is focused elsewhere--often times on the aspects of our lives we cannot change… and for what? A feeling of emptiness, of failure, of hopelessness? 


Yeah, I don't think so. I'm learning to grow beyond that. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so is happiness. I've realized that those who are truly happy have chosen to be that way--it's not because their lives are anymore exciting or wonderful than ours. They've just grasped a concept that the rest of us have seemed to pass by.


I may not be the prettiest girl, the most artistic, or the most brilliant; I don't have a playboy model body and I don't expect to blind the world with science. There are aspects of myself I would change if I could, but none of those things matter. I am fortunate to live the life that I do. I have the love of great people, I attend a beautiful university, I have the opportunity to turn my passion into a career… it would be a waste of a life to only focus on the things I don't have. So, I will invest my attention and time in what I do have, and I'm going to be ecstatic about them. I'm going to walk down the hallways of my school, books in hand, and pursue my "grande vie"-- passion for life. 


And I will be happy.