Happiness: A Class Anonymous

In The Office series finale, Andy Bernard remarks that he wished there was a “way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve left them.” I know in my own life, there have been days where I ached for my childhood, the time when my days were spent watching Spongebob and riding Razor scooters in the parking lot with all my friends. Back then, it seemed like I was always happy in the moment. Nowadays, not so much, and that’s something I want to take back. As a high schooler, I am constantly focused on the next big step: college. Instead of concentrating on and enjoying my life as it is right now, I’m always more concerned about where I’m going next.

To combat this, I would teach a class about happiness. This class would seek to answer the questions: what is happiness for? How can we tell if we are happy? And what actually makes us happy? It would study both the science and humanity of true happiness through the lenses of psychology, sociology, and philosophy. I would utilize the Andrew Matthew books Being Happy! and Happiness in a Nutshell, among others, to help my students learn to take a step back and appreciate who and where they are at the moment, instead of who and where they will be in ten years. Because after those...