Rotam fortunae non timeo -- "I do not fear the wheel of fortune!"

“Mortal men travel by different paths, though all are striving to reach one and the same goal… happiness,”[1] or so says Boethius, the great Roman philosopher. I think we can all agree that, no matter what we want to do or how we choose to do it, our ultimate goal is happiness. It is “the good which once obtained leaves nothing more to be desired.”[2] It doesn’t necessarily take a philosopher to realize this, though; approach any random person and he or she will probably confirm that a happy life, is, of necessity, a good one.

But what is happiness? We say we are “happy” when we get an A on a test, win an important sports game, or finish a grueling paper—but what do we mean by it? The joy from these moments, however real at the time, begins to appear ephemeral in retrospect. Think back to the 6^th or 7^th grade: do you still glow with warmth when you remember getting a 93 on an Earth Sciences test (if you remember at all!)? Many of these small triumphs may give us a rosy outlook on a certain place or phase of life, but do they really embody happiness? While these small events are significant, maybe true happiness, instead, is a state of life-long pleasure, contentedness, and fullness.

How do we go about obtaining life-long pleasure, though? If it were that simple, we’d all be happy, right? These questions were troubling me not too long ago, and I was greeted by a frustrating lack of answers. Self-help books abounded on finding happiness, and plenty of my friends were willing to give me an answer: “just do what you want!” But when this advice didn’t give me what I was looking for, I found myself searching again. I decided to start by observing the people around me who I thought were happy.

I tried to focus on people I had known for a while, and those whom I thought I knew fairly well. It wouldn’t do to emulate someone who was lost too! Over time, I slowly began to see some common threads; it seemed that each person whom I considered “happy” also tended to have a purpose. That is, he or she had some passion or guiding prerogative that influenced what they did. For some, it was family; others took comfort in music, and a few were genuinely satisfied by their jobs. It didn’t really seem to me like it mattered as much what each person was focused on, though, more whether he or she had some purpose. Those that knew what they wanted, and pursued it, seemed the most “full,” or “content” over a long period of time. Despite setbacks, major and minor—the death of a loved one or a quarrel with a friend—these people seemed to rebound quickly and retain happiness more easily than others. They knew where they were going and they knew how to get there.

Recently, I’ve begun to try to find something that could fill my life, as well—some sort of guiding passion. It hasn’t been easy, but I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately and am starting to really find out who I am and what I want. While this method probably isn’t the only way to reach happiness, it might just be one of those “paths” that we travel in search of it. Will this plan work? I’m not really sure, as the whole idea could very well be naïve beyond my imagining. We all have to seek happiness for ourselves, though, so it doesn’t hurt to try!