Thomas Jefferson promised our nation three things in our Declaration of Independence: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. It’s what our very nation was founded on, and what we fought for in the Revolutionary War. It’s what we still fight for today. Every year, there are dozens of marches that occur that fight in our democracy for what people believe in how the government should act and work. Americans fight on both sides of the political spectrum of how and what they believe is their idea of the American Dream. And while there’s debates and debates after the two promises of Life and Liberty in our beautiful country, the last promise shouldn’t have to be a debate at all, yet it is.

The pursuit of happiness is not what most Americans would think it to be. Jefferson didn’t promise endless joy all the time. He didn’t say that this was something we were just given at birth. He said we had the Right to the pursuit of happiness, not the right to happiness. But so many people seem to forget this.

Maybe Jefferson had a point with this. Maybe he chooses these words as an example of how life isn’t happy. There are happy parts, but life isn’t entirely happy and that happiness only comes to those who go after it. That is the whole “pursuit” part of the statement. It can’t just be handed to you, you have to go work for it.

The word pursuit, defined by Webster dictionary, is to pursue or to follow in order to obtain. We as Americans are granted this freedom to follow our dreams and to do what we want. We have this ability and resources to do that here in America. But what we don’t have is this right to happiness, just the pursuit of it.

If the government somehow found a way to just make everyone happy all the time without us having to work for anything, then how will we really know what happiness is or what the emotion truly feels like? We wouldn’t. Happiness only happens in moments of accomplishment, relief, or thankfulness. If we are just handed it, what have we really accomplished? What have we had to be relieved about? What do we have to be thankful about? Nothing.

So why do Americans think that they just deserve to be happy?

I can’t pinpoint how or why Americans have recently begun to feel this way. All I know is that it’s happening and that it needs to stop. As my mother once told me, “Only you can create your own happiness.” She’s totally right. Only you can determine what forces are in your life that is going to make you feel happy, sad, angry, or whatever emotion. And while sure, sometimes there are things out of our control that can take our happiness away, that’s part of being human.

Being human means we feel pain and emotion. It’s our journey that forms us and creates us to be the people we are today. Happiness is only one part of being human, but the end goal and what we should spend our whole life trying to achieve.

I don’t know when we will achieve this. For some, it’s when we get to Heaven, but for others, it is something entirely different. Times in my life where I’ve felt happiest have sometimes not had anything to do with religion, but simply because the people I chose to surround myself with. Other times my religion played the largest role in it.

The government can’t give you happiness. Material things can’t bring you endless joy. Only you can determine what will make you happy. This idea that things and other people are what causing this upset in your life is unrealistic. If someone or something is causing you pain, it is up to you, and only you, to get rid of it in your life. That thing isn’t going to leave because you just keep giving it the attention it wants.

Happiness is up to the individual. It isn’t a right or something just given to you for free. It’s your own journey and ability to look at your life and be content on the person you are and the people in your life. It’s a journey, a winding road, or an uphill battle. Not a walk in the park.

That’s why it’s a pursuit of happiness, not just happiness.