Pursuit of Happiness
At the beginning of the semester, I wrote my first issue of my column on how imperative, even vital having the right perspective is in being happy. It’s important to bring the subject back up again, especially as the spring semester comes to a close and finals begin.
Pursuit of Happiness
Mark Twain once said, “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.” Ever have one of those weeks where everything is due? Heaven forbid on the same day?
Pursuit of Happiness
A woman calls Life Crisis Services. She talks in a low voice, looking for help from herself. Clicks register over the phone as she continues talking about the little things in life that made her happy. Click. Click. Sheryl Bergin, former Life Crises worker, talks to her and tries to calm her down, making every effort to convince her to remove the gun from her mouth.
The Pursuit of Happiness
For some people, including me, taking a break from routine schedules can be difficult to do, if not impossible. We bury ourselves deep in responsibilities and following predictability to the point life becomes mundane and repetitive. It’s class Monday through Friday and working when not in school. Weekends become a time to socialize, play video games, and/or catch up on homework; but whatever we do one weekend, it tends to repeat the next weekend, and the following weekend, until a pattern of “same old, same old” develops.
Pursuit of Happiness
When we’re rushing through life, we’re not living in the moment. For every second we fret with the future, we’re spending one less second in the present. Students are trained from childhood to plan ahead. In early grade school, we’re given homework to complete by the next day. A frowning face or a red sticker tells parents their child didn’t complete the task.
Pursuit of Happiness
During the winter at my old job with Washington University, I would step out of McMillan Hospital, shivering in the freezing weather. Every day, I saw an African American man playing his saxophone as pedestrians walked right by, occasionally dropping a few cents into his semi-transparent ice-cream bucket.
Pursuit of Happiness
Life sucks. And when it does, people just complain. I hate the rain. The cold is unbearable. College is kicking my butt. I wish I didn’t have to take this class. My teacher wants us to read 30 pages by Friday. Not only that, but I hate my job, my boss is a jerk, and I’m not getting that promotion I want.
and 
