My Inspiration: The Pursuit of Happyness

Hello all, and hope you all had a great New Years!

To start off this year, I thought it would be a great idea to discuss the source of my inspiration for creating this blog-The Pursuit of Happyness. This is autobiography, by Chris Gardener, is about a his struggle in single-handedly raising a child from homeless conditions to eventually becoming rich as a wildly popular stockbroker, without any college education.

Granted this book is a classic “rags-to-riches” story and a rather simple book, but nonetheless, it shows unwavering determination to better his and his child’s future, no matter what the circumstance. The book is very captivating and makes the reader want to turn the page to find out how he plans to fend for himself. His struggle in a first-world society with third-world problems is what captivates me, but perhaps the most admirable moral of all is that he never gives up hope.

As a reader, it makes me realize "that struggle is the meaning of life," truly. No matter how big or small, we all fight a unique war in life and it affects us all differently, but the most important thing is to have the determination to keep the strength, hope and courage to face and get through the problems. It also makes me realize to appreciate what I have, rather than complain for what I do not, and to continue to aspire to make a better life.

Starting the New Year off− in the wrong direction

New Years is just around the corner and almost everybody is excited about a new, fresh start to their lives. Many use New Years as an excuse to start the year improving themselves through resolutions. Before the New Year begins though, we choose to get in all our last whims or wishes that aren’t necessarily good for us. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that− unless this last-minute pursuit of happiness can kill someone.

For people of age, and unfortunately people underage, drinking happens. Knowing that alcohol is dangerous for their bodies, many tend to use it as the last unhealthy way to enjoy themselves before starting a saintly new year. More likely than not, many will abuse alcohol in thinking that this is their “last” time, which potentially can result in endangering themselves or someone else.

In order to minimize car accidents caused by drivers under the influence, CTA will be offering penny rides from late New Year’s Eve to early morning New Year’s Day. There will also be a Tipsy Tow service, where when you call 800-AAA-HELP, AAA service will give you a free ride.

All these initiatives are in place due to the high rate of deaths caused from being under the influence. It’s especially terrifying, since car crashes are the leading cause of death for teens and one out of three of those is alcohol-related.

Thinking that New Years is the LAST day in their lives to be as bad as they want, people try to do too much in the last day, usually drink more. Media and Hallmarking is largely to blame for this “last” day psychology. While sometimes that feeling is unavoidable, we don’t realize how much we’re expecting from this one day, which is also largely why some people find it useless to make resolutions in the first place. Relying on changing overnight is, frankly, a bit unpractical and unrealistic. If, throughout the year, you think of everyday as a new, fresh start, you’ll be able to really improve on your short-term and long-term goals, even if you do make a mistake in the process or forget your goal one day. If you fit in a guilty pleasure more responsibly the whole year, you’ll most likely be able to do the same on New Year’s Eve.

Don’t bank on the New Year’s as the Armageddon of All-Wishes-Unhealthy, because a good chance is that you might end up hurting yourself or hurting someone else, breaking any type of resolution you formulated. While it may be a bit burdensome on New Year’s, when you want to forget everything and enjoy yourself, you have to be responsible or consequences can go to another person’s family starting their year with painful tears. Please, if not for your own sake, for others, act responsibly by following these tips.

Happy New Year to All, and May This New Year bring in Happiness For All!

Misconception of the Spiritual Pursuit of Happiness

You've probably heard of the time when an ardent atheist or agnostic person receives news that he/she has terminal cancer and suddenly resorts to remembering God or are found reading the Bible in their hospital room. Why the sudden change?

Well, maybe because many such people, if not everyone, try to find comfort, relaxation, satisfaction, or happiness in believing that some greater force is out there that is going to take care of them, no matter what. Religion might mean something different for everyone, but usually, followers of any faith follow it because they find those characteristics listed above in their faiths, whether that faith is represented through idols, through the Trinity, through the Noble Eight Fold Path etc.

Yet, even in our spiritual pursuit of happiness, tensions exist. There has always been great tension between religions. Because of our relations with the Middle East and events around the Arab Spring, the crusade of this century seems to deal mostly with Islam.

Being a Muslim, I get asked many questions: To name a few recent ones - “How come you don’t wear the veil?”, “If you got a chance to go to Hajj, would you?”, “People who aren’t in your sect, do you believe they’re going to hell?”, “Do you pray 5 times a day?”

I’m not at all annoyed with these questions, especially since they’re asked by well-informed, nice and bright people. In fact, I love people who are curious, but I actually find it a bit funny that there is even a need to ask me such questions. Chances are that your answer to the question is probably what my religion teaches me too, because they're basically the same belief. Granted, specifics cause the nuanced differences, but I hope people grasp the overall big picture. Let’s just take one question for example, “How come you don’t wear the veil?”, a specific detail of the religion. I mean, I could tell you straight up, "No, I don't," but, again, let's also not forget the big picture. When I say "No," I don't undermine the emphasis of modesty, which is a key virtue in Islam, and in most religions I know (Nuns wear a veil, Many Jews wear the Yarmulke, etc.). Wearing the veil is one's choice; some might feel they're being modest with it, some might feel modest without it. But the virtue that religion teaches is modesty: that's the big picture that connects all of us, in this particular case.

I feel like sometimes, in the midst of small details of each religion, we forget that ALL faiths are literally the SAME. There is really no other way to put it. Each religion, especially the Abrahamic faiths, puts emphasis on the same values. The gist of any faith is to 1) remember God, 2) Live Morally, and 3) be happy and make others happy. No religion teaches any different than the gist above; the subtle nuisances categorize us and blind us from seeing the overarching unity of all faiths.

I'd argue that even if you categorize yourself as un-religious or atheist; if you lead your life morally, you're also very similar to me and other religious beings because leading an ethical life is, I believe, a way of remembering God's words, therefore, remembering God, in my opinion.

So why the constant tension....?

Being Thankful

Last week, Mr. Whipple left off on an interesting note. He told the class honestly that he, like the most of us, forgets to reflect on holidays we have off from school, like Veteran’s Day. Before Thanksgiving Break, he ended his class by saying that he was thankful for us, his students.

‘Tis a kind thought indeed. Thanksgiving is an important day to reflect all that we have and give thanks for the abundance we have in life. For me, Thanksgiving is also an important occasion to reflect how you yourself have impacted others. If, even for a second, you think that you haven’t influenced anything in this world, you are sadly mistaken, my friend, because your existence on this earth makes a difference. Think of your impact on your family, your friends, your community, and the Earth, and be thankful for it! Sometimes- a lot of the time- we tend to drown in life’s problems. We tend to thank God for all the wonderful things in our life, but we don’t appreciate and thank God for making us who we are today. Even if you’re not happy with who you are today, realizing your roles in life and the positive impact you’ve made on people and the Earth is a great way and being thankful that you could mark such a presence in people’s lives is a great way to bring positivity in your life.

In addition to being thankful for who I am, I am thankful for my intellect, my education, and ability to take action with it. I am thankful that I have the opportunity to learn about different literature and different issues freely and be able to take action in my community, therefore, make an impact on others. In class, we are reading Reading Lolita in Tehran , a story about Iranian women who secretly gather to discuss different banned literature. In some places, women don’t have the freedom and opportunities. The professor in the book has to organize these meetings in the house because the university forbids talking about such books. Realizing things we take for granted shines positivity in our lives and is a great way to remind ourselves all the things we have to be happy for.

The Immigrant’s Pursuit of Happiness

Immigration is the epitome of the Pursuit of Happiness. Immigrants leave their motherland behind to find a place of opportunity, a place of Happiness. But wait-Does immigrating to a place with freedom mean achieving Happiness?

In an English and Social Studies collaboration, the class watched an animated movie-based on the book- about life during the Iranian Revolution, called Persepolis. In the movie, due to the restriction of freedom of speech, the parents of a growing girl in Iran, Marjane, send her to Vienna, Italy after she gets in trouble for speaking against the biased curriculum taught in school. Her parents wanted a better life for their daughter and sent her to a place where she will be free to do whatever she wants.

Sounds like a good plan, doesn’t it?

Well, probably, it was, for a pair of helpless parents. While at a boarding school in Vienna, Marjane gets thrown out of a covenant for insulting the nuns and ends up moving to various houses. She meets a group of friends, and boys, who introduce her to the freedom and culture of smoking, drinking, clubbing and sleeping around. She has the freedom to say whatever she wants, she has the freedom to do whatever she wants without restriction. Yet, after a couple of years in Vienna, Marjane ends up on the streets. She is desperate to go back to Iran, and asks her parents never to question her about anything in Vienna.

Maybe an immigrant’s life in the U.S. doesn’t end up on the street, but many immigrants, especially first-generation, don't achieve satisfaction and feel a disconnection to the place they reside in. As I have witnessed myself, many immigrants long for their familiar culture, their traditional surroundings, and their relatives, yet they make another land their home and stay there for the better opportunities, which outweigh every other desire.

Both my parents are first-generation immigrants. They’ve well adapted themselves to American culture, but there is always this desire to go back where they’ve grown up, meet their friends, and delve back in the culture they were brought up in. They dislike the fast-paced culture in America, (not to mention all the other West-associated habits also). If they got a chance to go today, I’m sure they would love to go, even though they are surrounded by many friends and relatives of the same nationality here. I’ll often here them say, “It’s not the same.”

Nonetheless, they are thankful for the opportunities here and continue to live here. A land of freedom and opportunities is a type of happiness in itself, but, as I've seen it, there’s only a certain level of happiness they've achieved. They try to fill that longing with things like watching traditional movies or going to Devon Ave (Indian Area in Chicago).

Many people, like my parents, continue to stay in the places they have adapted to, but I found it interesting that Marjane did not find bliss in the West-in fact-she would have rather gone back to her oppressed country, than stay in Vienna.

Response to Blog Post: "Adversity and Optimism"

Reading through my classmates' blog, I stumbled upon a blog post that directly related to my previous post: Adversity and Optimism.

This blog compares the writer's first-hand experience in Africa by what the media often portrays as "Poor Africa". The following paragraph is my favorite:

"Africa has a much lengthier history than the United States or any other society, so it seems unfair that our media judges their standard of life as inadequate. Ghanaian people are happy because they have families to love, a faithful outlook on their existence, and a very different view on success. To succeed in America is to be the best, but in Ghana it is to be content and enjoy life. Many people in Ghana have to worry much more about the basic necessities, but everything happens with a much more relaxed and forgiving pace (which is excellent except when you're trying to get somewhere quickly in a tro-tro)."

I don't know about you, but I absolutely love the African definition of success: to be content and enjoy life. Imagine if that was our only goal! I probably wouldn't be striving for half the things in life right now if I wasn't also considering my "success" in the future. If every moment I lived just to be happy and not the best, I would be putting more effort into my and others' happiness as well.

If I ever go/move to Africa, my most important personal reason would be to live life where it is socially acceptable to live by the life goal to just be happy. But does that mean it's not possible to do that in America? Of course not!

We could prioritize our goals to where our happiness tops the list. While it is harder to do so, it can be done. The first step is to ask yourself what matters more: Your happiness or the rat-race to be number 1? If your happiness lies in being the best, then go for it! My happiness lies in that success as well, I mean, who doesn't feel great when they're the best? But, If I had a choice, I would spend more time and energy helping others, bettering myself, and relaxing.

Recently, I've been researching a lot of blogs about happiness. For my readers, I highly recommend The Positivity Blog. Every blog post gives tips and inspirations to lead your life with happiness. I love this website because it's not fake or generic. I've actually used the advice that this blog gives me and it has helped me to prioritize my happiness first as much as possible.

The concept of prioritizing our happiness probably sounds absurd to us. I know I've been in denial for quite some time thinking that I am happy, so that it's no more a concern of mine and I can actually focus on other things. But, I learned that if I consciously make the effort to try and put happiness first, as much as possible, then it actually works.

Try living life simply. Try to take out just one week, one day or even an hour everyday to just take care of yourself and do what will bring you happiness. See what happens, when you do some cleaning on your priority list. :)

Happiest Countries in the World

What are some of the first words that come to your mind when you think of Africa today?

I gave myself 10 seconds to think of the first words that come to my mind: Poverty, HIV/AIDS, Hunger, Tribal Diversity, Biodiversity, Animals, Violence, Homelessness, and Orphans. Out of 9 things that came to my mind, only 3 words were positive.

I genuinely tried to think of some positive aspects about Africa, but in those ten seconds, I couldn't. It's really depressing, but are you surprised? I'm not.

In English, the class discussed the role of newspaper of U.S. media in the perception of Africa this past week. We examined articles from the 50's/60's and modern-day news about Africa. Many of the students found that most of the American newspaper researched were sending out messages encouraging Westernization and portraying African Independence-seekers as rebellious and violent. Modern-Day Africa is basically portrayed as a problem-stricken country in newspapers today.

Interestingly enough, this week the class also learned about search engines and this 'bubble' that's created when searching from your personal computer. The idea of this 'bubble' was to create an algorithm that would filter searches and look at patterns in your searches in order to pull information most relevant to you. While intent is to get relevant information to you first, it has the potential of offering biased and one-sided information that we'd WANT to hear according to our preferences. Even if we'd like more information on the positive sides of Africa, there's a roadblock to more knowledge.

I think with the sole information I've receive about Africa in the U.S., I honestly can't imagine living in a place where I'd fear for my life everyday. I'm happier in the U.S. knowing that I have security of my life. But does that necessarily mean that Africans are unhappy or unhappier than I am?

Over the weekend, I tried to research lists and ranks of the happiest countries in the world. To my (un)surprise, Western Countries like Canada, U.S., Scandinavian Counties, and Australia are what ranked the highest on the first few google web page searches. After swifting through the pages (yes, there is more available than just the first 10 searches), I found that Nigeria was once ranked one of the happiest countries by BBC in 2003: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/3157570.stm.

I tried to search more about what BBC had to offer about Nigeria, and found a publication of May2011 http://www.globescan.com/news_archives/bbc2011_entrepreneur/BBC_GlobeScan_Entrepreneur.pdf that shows a survey of Nigerians being satisfied with the entrepreneurship opportunities offered to them.

So maybe we don't have all the information to make judgements about Africa? Despite the problems in Africa, maybe people are happy?

Then I came across the HPI (Happy Planet Index). This organization came together to find a way to rank the happiest planets in the world, coming up with the following equation:

HPI = Happy Life Years

Ecological Footprint/Resources consumed

At first, an ecological footprint confused me as a a factor of happiness, but it can have an impact on your future. Happy Life Years is measured by a survey of Life Satisfaction multiplied by Life Expectancy.

This map shows a ranking of HPI scores in terms of the three categories. If all 3 categories are good or close to healthy, the country is marked green, whereas if 2 or more categories are poor, it is marked red.

WOW! Look at this result! The U.S. and Africa are both marked red! This was an interesting discovery. In terms of happiness and life satisfaction, U.S. ranked well, but in terms of ecological footprint, the future of happy lives in the U.S. is about as equally bad as a place like Africa, where everything but an ecological footprint is a problem.

Of course, ranking something subjective like happiness has its flaws, which even this organization offers as a disclaimer, but I found that this site did a pretty good job. I also learned that "more" doesn't always mean "happy" and that taking care of our resources also plays a huge role in our happiness.

I especially noticed this as I was reading the Poisonwood Bible, where Leah notices and in fact, envied the family who were laughing together and were so happy despite the problems in their life with living in poverty, losing 2 children, etc.

It is true that Africa has its own struggles and variety of problems, but it doesn't mean that they aren't happy. It also doesn't mean that they are happy. What I've learned is that I simply can not assume that since we, Americans, don't have the problems in Africa, we are happier than them.

In the Poisonwood Bible, Nelson tells Ruth May a secret of thinking of the safe place after death. In retrospect, this actually gives people comfort in dying than fearing their lives. While problems might seem extremely bad to us here in the U.S. and they really might be as bad as we understand them to be, Africans could be learning to cope as best as they can and still have a bit of positivity to get through life; in that respect, maybe as, or more, positivity than the U.S...