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Throughout life, we as a society are reminded of happiness quite often. From a young age, we are told to do what makes us happy by following our passions. However, we all find happiness in entirely different ways from each other. All of us have different definitions of what happiness truly is. For some, happiness means having the thrill and energy to do many different things, like scuba diving to jumping up and down. To others, it may mean feeling blissful at the moment through peace of mind. For me, happiness is a feeling of relief and excitement. The three occasions I feel an incredible amount of happiness are when I accomplish an impressive goal, help someone in need, and take the right course of action, even during difficult times, ultimately leading towards not having regrets. Even though I feel happy on other occasions, these three events always make me smile.

Accomplishments

Accomplishing a significant goal, if not any, makes me happy because it shows me that I am capable of so much in my life and can achieve anything I want, no matter how difficult it is to attain. Achieving something significant relieves me of the fact that I can do great things and will most likely not have any regrets in the future. One such example of a time when I accomplished something awe-inspiring and felt good afterward was when I ran the half-marathon in Princeton. I never thought I could run a half-marathon for a long time since I could barely run a 5k. Luckily, my parents pushed me, even when I didn’t believe in myself. They helped me prepare for the race by keeping me disciplined to go to the gym and run 3 miles every day for two weeks. Once the race day arrived, I ran at a reasonable speed the entire time. After completing the race, I felt so happy because I learned that I could achieve anything I put my mind to and that I did something unique with my time.

Serving

In addition to accomplishing goals, I feel delighted when I intentionally help someone in need. After helping someone, I internally feel peace with myself, leading toward contentment because I think I am doing the right thing. One specific time I helped someone and felt good afterward was when I was tutoring a 4th grader in math. That particular day, I was teaching him multiplication and division using timetables. For a while, he struggled to understand how to multiply numbers using 1 or 2 until I taught him how to get the answer by counting on his fingers. The counting fingers technique quickly helped him understand how to multiply and divide the numbers 1, 2, and 3 with the numbers 1-10. Once the class was done, I felt much better about him understanding multiplication and division since his mother could also see him familiarizing the timetables. As a result, his mother complimented me on how well I was teaching her son, which then made my day. Helping anyone during difficulties makes me feel blissful in the end since it reminds me that I have made a positive impact on someone’s life.

Persistence

In addition to accomplishing goals and helping others, having no regrets in life adds to my exhilaration and well-being in life. I try not to have regrets by not giving up during challenging times, helping other people, and accomplishing goals. In these moments, I can feel relief and joy about the past and excitement about the future. An example of a time I felt pleased that I have no regrets and made the right decision on time was graduating high school. The pandemic was globally present throughout my senior year, with thousands of cases. I felt hopeless and exhausted from my high school journey. I almost felt like dropping out; however, I didn’t give up and kept my grades consistent till the end. I applied for colleges and got into Rutgers University. Even though my grades started slipping toward the end, I still did my best to keep them at a 3.0 level and proudly graduated from high school. Graduating high school was a moment I feel proud of because it almost didn’t happen if I had dropped out at the last minute from exhaustion. 

Returning to what gives me true joy is accomplishing goals, helping others, and taking specific actions to avoid regrets. Although happiness may come in different ways to others, this is how I mainly experience it. As a result, I always try to make the most of these occasions since happiness is one of the best feelings to experience.