If there is one thing in my life that I have decided to do, it would be to choose happiness. I deserve to be happy, and you do too. I am the only one that can decide what truly makes me happy. I should not have to justify what makes me happy to anyone. Whether it be school, work, friends, or family, I have the power to decide what affects my happiness.I want to encourage everyone to find what makes them happy and run with it. Keep working to achieve genuine happiness. Do I think happiness can be achieved overnight? Well, it depends on the situation. Happiness can gradually start happening, or it can happen all at once. When I started choosing my happiness, all other aspects of my life started to fall into place.

The first step in choosing happiness is surrounding your life with people who make you happy. That means you might have to cut ties with certain people, or take that leap of faith and try to bring someone into your life who will make you happy. When I finally started to be happy was when I decided to stop having certain people in my life. I had family members who never cared about how I was doing, or what was going on in my life.

When I was younger, all I wanted was for them to acknowledge me, and all of my accomplishments. As I grew older, I decided to stop going to family gatherings and started to focusing on myself. Once I focused on my happiness and started focusing on the family that actually made me happy, life was good. I am not telling you to cut all of the people out of your life who make you sad at times, but you need to know that it is okay to let go. You deserve to be happy and take whatever steps necessary to make that happiness happen.

The same goes for friends. If there is a person you consider a friend, and they do not make you happy, make a move and get that negativity out of your life. There is no rule stating you have to remain friends with someone the rest of your life. People grow up, and people change. You are not forced to remain friends with someone. Friends are supposed to support you and encourage you to be the best person you can be. If you have a friend who doesn't make you happy, then they are not a friend worthy of your friendship.

If a job or school doesn't make you happy, then do whatever it takes to find happiness. I am a junior in college, and I have attended three different colleges. Yes, that is a bit much, but I took the necessary steps to make me happy. I went to community college my freshmen year, and the college did make me happy. But it didn’t offer the courses I needed for my degree. I thought I had it all figured out when I decided to transfer to a big, public Michigan college. I was dead set on obtaining my degree from there. As the year went on, I found myself coming home every night on the verge of tears. I was so unhappy with this particular college. The courses made me sad, the teachers made me sad, and the cost of tuition made me really sad.

I decided to make a change, and change to actually be happy in college. After my sophomore year, I transferred back to a private college in Indiana. I chose to finally be happy. It was a risky move to transfer to another college, but the risk was worth my happiness. Now, I love my classes, my professors, and well, I can't really control the whole tuition thing.

I urge you to make the necessary moves to help you achieve happiness. If you are unhappy with a job, make a change. Quit if you have to. You do not deserve to wake up every morning and go to a job that makes you miserable. We only have one life, and we need to make the most of it. One shitty job should not define the rest of your life. It could be time to make a change in career or go back to school to earn a degree. I cannot promise that it will be easy, and I cannot promise that it will be worth it in the end, but I can promise you that you will never know if you don't try. You may struggle at times, and you may fall down, but use your happiness to pick you back up. Think of the ultimate goal: your happiness.

As you make your way through life, I want you to choose your happiness. I want you to find what genuinely makes you happy. Whether that be a job, a school, or a person. Find that special something that makes you happy, and don't let go. But if that something ever decides to make you unhappy, you need to know you can let it go. You deserve whatever it may be that makes you happy. These are our lives. We decide what makes us happy. We do not have to justify to anyone why something makes us happy. So, I encourage all of you to choose happiness.