Don’t listen to people who say that being happy is easy, they’re trying to sell you something. Probably drugs, maybe yoga lessons. Or they might be vegan. (Side note, if they’re vegan, they’re not happy. No one who lives without cake is happy. What do you eat on your birthday? A tofu loaf with carrots sticking out of it? Ew). Happiness is not something that you achieve. It’s something you chase. As you all know, I am not, nor ever profess to be, an expert on anything. But what I have learned over my eighteen years of life is that you have to chase happiness. Maybe it’s a friendly game of tag for you, but for people like myself, it’s a lot more like a Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner cartoon. But we can all learn a little something from Wile E. Coyote. No matter how many times he’s ran into a wall or off a cliff, he keeps trying. There’s something to be said for that. It would be pretty depressing if after the first couple of tries, he was like “you know what, this isn’t going to work. I’d rather just starve to death, you win”. Quitting is always an option, but the consequences can be deadly. Similar to food, if we don’t have happiness in our lives, we’re not going to make it very far.

I get that this is a simple cartoon meant for children and it’s not meant to be picked apart and painfully over-analyzed, but it’s a good analogy for the point I’m trying to make. In our vast population of human beings, we have so many different strengths and weaknesses. But we all share that similar drive to be happy and make others happy. The overlying theme we share as human beings is in fact the overlying theme of what we are all scared of. Sure we all want to be happy and like being happy, but as I’ve said before being happy is not something that is achieved. Wile E. Coyote gets close to catching the Roadrunner many times, but he never really gets a hold of him, does he?

You never know when you’re going to become happy or how long it’s going to last. So when you feel it coming on, you latch on tight and run with it as far as you can go. When it’s over, the chase begins all over again. You are stuck in this desert, trying to catch this elusive thing. You could die without it, but you might die trying to get it too. The very thing we all love is the very thing we all fear, and if that is not a kickass metaphor for life and the pursuit of happiness, I don’t know what is. Mic drop, I’m out.