Happiness is...

My Mom and Grandma often say that the title of this picture should be "Happiness is..." and I find that to be a fitting title. I found myself recently looking back on these days and thinking why did it seem so easy to be fully immersed in being happy with what was around me. It was a simpler time in my life when the worries and stresses of life didn't get to me and I could just sit with my favorite teddy bear(which I still have) and two of my sisters and one my brothers with the window open and the serene cornfields in the background.

Lately, I've found myself split in two in a way because I have felt like half of my life now is out at school and the other half is here at home. When I'm at school I miss my family and the Florida life with my house and nearby beaches but I have noticed this summer that when I am home, I miss my friends and my school life. I was getting myself down and thinking that it was just great that for the next for years of my life I was never going to be fully happy in one place. You can imagine after realizing this I was pretty down and I think that once you're upset about one thing it's like you look for other reasons to be more upset or make your brain get more upset about something else so the first thing doesn't seem as bad. You can bet that's what I subconsciously did and it was terrible. Don't worry, it gets better right about now.

After a few weeks of being upset and listening to my depressing cd in every car ride(my sisters tried to stop me but I felt like it's all I wanted to listen to) I decided that I needed to shape up and stop worrying about other people and their lives and focus on mine and just being happy like I was when that picture was taken. I've decided that happiness is a choice and I'm sure everyone can find at LEAST one reason in their life to not be happy but man, that would be one depressing life with a whole bunch of depressed people. In the past week or so that I've decided to just forget about the things that make me sad and instead of being sad now just enjoy my family time now because I know I will miss it and then enjoy my school life and friends out there when that time comes because now I know I'll miss that too. When I'm happy it's like everything sad in my life is forgotten or if it somehow creeps into my mind I just kick it to the curb, or something like that haha.

I guess what I'm trying to say can be summed up by Mr. Franklin himself:

"The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself."

I'd like to add that you also have to "keep" it yourself :)