Tiara Garland Professor Susan Lago English 1100 37 17 December 2013 Happiness Happiness is an emotional state of instant gratification.

It can be achieved with something as simple as becoming a parent or falling in love. Peace of mind cannot be measured by the amount of money, a job title or materialistic things. In the midst of sadness, individuals often allow prosperity to mask their true emotions. Bliss is used as a shield during hard times. While Mark Kingwell and Jennifer Seniors both had different views of happiness, they agreed while in the pursuit of happiness; sadness is inevitable. Kingwell was uninterested in happiness origin, while Senior wanted to research what provoked happiness and the legitimacy of peoples contentment. Mark Kingwells view on enchantment is no one really knows the true meaning of happiness. According to the text Kingwell called happiness a mugs game which is a game no one can win (Kingwell413). Kingwell thinks as much as we try to define the true meaning of happiness, we will never know. . As I read seniors point I notice see believes everyone has their own perspective on what causes happiness. Granted the reasons may vary from achieving a goal to building relationships to simply a gleeful experience. Happiness cannot be measured, it is intangible. So how can one gain euphoria? Can it be taught?(Senior428). Teaching someone jubilation is similar to teaching that individual how to be themselves. The feeling is controlled by that person. For example, joviality may come and go like a season; it can be taken away at any

moment. However, it is not lost forever. Hard times will cause a person to strive for happiness once again. Kingwell states NO sentence beginning Happiness is. Is likely to do us much good (Kingwell413). There is no scientific equation for happiness; its just part of life. If happiness was determined everyone would be the same. Seeing that when in a relationship your happiness can depend on someone else; it should be valued and treasured like a priceless commodity. When new relationships blossom, the mere thought of that person causes delight. Once the courtship ends a person tends to lose themselves. Being happy with a significant other has become their addiction. After mourning the relationship, soul searching is often needed to revive the feeling of elation. Specifically, Jennifer Seniors article dealt with the determination of the origin of happiness. She took a test to find her happiness and she received a low score. Jennifer went on a search to see what others would score; she concludes that privileged people arent as happy as many imagine. Senior says, 22 lottery winners were no happier than a control group (Senior425). This proves large amounts of money cannot buy you happiness. Smarter people arent any happier, but those who drink moderation are. Attractive people are slightly happier than unattractive people (Senior425). The key to confidence and attractiveness is knowing you already are, this feeling of self-assurance will exude. More importantly, Seniors desires to discover everyones zip code exposed a variety of answers. The results were often opposite of what she conceived. Senior found out Surprisingly little in the happiness literature about raising children, which in and out of itself is odd, most of it suggests children dont make parents any happier (Glibert426). Often becoming a parent is either unexpected or a result of trying for a long period of time; parenthood can produce a

multitude of emotions. Pleasure when you look in the face of a child that has taken his or her first steps. Blessedness as you watch your child graduate from high school. On the other hand, having a child in order to keep a relationship intact will never carry out exuberance. Also producing a child at the request of a juvenile can backfire. For example, I always wanted a baby sister until she was born. Her mischievous behavior has changed my views on wanting to become a parent. Her devilish ways have caused many arguments amongst my parents. Subsequently, Senior says Happiness wasnt even a value, much less an inalienable right. It was something one got to experience only in death, after leading virtuous, and often selfdenying, life (Senior429). In that case, death is inevitable; yet if a person focused mainly on the positive rather the negative, they would die with a grateful heart. Inner peace comes with death considering individuals no longer have to worry about lifes trials and tribulations. The implication is being that happy means being lucky. And luck is not something we can entirely will (McMahon429). Happiness is fine as a side effect (Phillips429). With this in mind, optimism, healthy relationships and positive thinking are a few outcomes when you try to aspire to gain merriment. Though Kingwell and Senior both wrote about happiness, they had extremely different views towards the topic. Kingwell believes it is pointless to try to research the definition of happiness. Meanwhile Senior strived to find the cause of humanities good spirits. Her studies show that some people can be happy with lifes basic necessities. Whereas wealth y personalities have an abundance of money yet they may never gain cheeriness. With Kingwell everything was left undetermined.

All in all, my personal belief on happiness is undetermined. Citizens have different states of mind. If you surround yourself with positivity then ultimately you will find serenity. Adversities are a necessity of life, sorrow forces an appreciation of vivacity. For example, when my boyfriend and I were together all we did was argue but I would never break up with him. After a while I started to realize I wasnt being myself so I had to end it. Even though it was hard for me to get over it I soon recovered and got back to being myself. I just had to realize he was not the only boy in the world for me. Ones perception of happiness is normally based on their life experiences. Hence, life is what you make it.