Do you want to be happy or do you want to have money? That has been a question that I’ve been fighting with all my life. “Money brings happiness” or “without money, one can never truly be happy.” People would make those comments to me when I would ask their perspective on the topic. It seemed that most people chose money over happiness. Good for them. That means they were going to get up every day, get ready and go to work, probably doing the same thing that they did the last 10 years. So I followed their motions. I got a job in something that I had no prior experience or knowledge in. All that mattered was that I had money. Luckily, I got the opportunity to realize that money wasn't what brought me happiness.

I took a week off of my current job to work at my local fair. One week, almost double the money. I figured it was going to be just another pointless demanding job that paid more than my current job. That’s why I took it: it was for the money. Here’s the thing, if I weren’t so obsessed with money, I would have never taken the fair job where I would have never learned that happiness is more important to me than money. So I'm grateful in that aspect.

The first day was like any other day, got up, made coffee and off to work I went. Once there I followed instructions, went to my designated position, shut up and did my work. That’s what I’ve done with every other job. I was there for the money, nothing more.

As the week progressed, I was slowly watching myself becoming my who I used to be. I made jokes, I laughed, smiled, made small talk and even gained some new friends whom I love dearly. The point is, I never realized how something like a job can take away your happiness. How it drains you of everything and trains you to be this robot who goes to work then straight home to bed only to get back up and do it all over again. How it makes you think the days go by slow but if you blink, you’re faced with the realization that you’re already two years deep into this job.

A job can be stressful, but it shouldn’t be painful. It can be difficult but it shouldn’t be unbearable. A job should help you grow as a person, not make you wither away into something less. That quote, "Do what you love and you'll never work another day in your life." That quote means so much more to me now than it did a week ago. If I’ve learned anything from that week at the fair, it’s that I rather be happy and mentally healthy rather than broken and have money. Money will never bring me happiness and I can be truly happy without a lot of money. Don't take a job for the money, accept it because it's what you love. I’ll take happiness over money any day.