There is an institute around happiness, an ideology behind the business and bargain of what is truly in a smile. It's a facade that is recent and put here by the “automated” generation, the Kardashian seekers, and the photoshop junkies. There indeed is an institute built around happiness, and I'm afraid we've all fallen victim to this pyramid scheme.

I noticed the pubescent corruption around 10 years of age when my parents didn’t persuade me to wear the same brand of clothes as the other kids, they felt as though they did not wish to raise someone that fell into that “stigma”. They didn't wish to buy into a multimillion dollar brainwash, so I was pushed aside in school. I wasn't an “A&F” baby boomer- so I was deemed less than that of my classmates (or, at least, that's how I felt). By High School I started to make up for the lost popularity by buying into the brands myself, but it wasn’t just a materialistic purchase- I found myself believing that if I threw more money down on clothing, or gadgets and gizmos I truly would receive higher ratings by that of my peers. However, now as a sophomore in college I can look back and confirm this was not the case. More recently I've realized that the institute has developed, it has gained traction by becoming not only an appearance based corporation, but a mindset. My generation is falling into a sinkhole, that it is not just mundane purchases that gets you on the A-List, but your psyche as well.

What I mean by this is when was the last time you went to a party and hung out in a room full of individuals with self-expressed thoughts? Why is it that I have friends that come up to me and ask how I'm so comfortable not conforming to what society has laid out for us? These questions have yet to puzzled me due to my strong belief that my time here on earth deserves to be spent doing something more than being a cookie cutter human, just going through the motions only to ever work for temporal possessions and day to day bills.

There shouldn’t have to be an art to standing out. There's a book called “The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter”, by Carson McCullers that I happened to read many moons ago when I was sick of going through the motions of life. Within the read, there was a quote that said,

“People felt themselves watching him even before they knew that there was anything different about him. His eyes made a person think that he heard things that no one else had ever heard, that he knew things no one had ever guessed before. He did not seem quite human.”

I believe there is a lot of my spirit within that quote, and there is also a lot to learn from it. Just because someone judges you for your differences doesn’t make them wrong. You shouldn't aspire to be your celebrity crush, you should just learn from them as your role models. The problem with this generation is they wish to be everyone but themselves.

So I urge you to go forth, live a life of spiritual luxury instead that of lavish gifts. Be more than human, and derive from the art of investing in yourself, buy stocks in your own personal happiness, and bonds upon your interests; because that is truly the business of happiness.