Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I like jtur88's responses! I find myself very happy, and amoung other things, happy that I will likely "die happy". . . who would-a thunk it? I have managed to achieve many if not most of the things that I really wanted to do, which was a real long shot for this (financially poor, emotionally abused) child from the inner city of Chicago, even the ones that seemed like "pipe dreams" to most of my friends and relatives. . . I have the real love of a few, very special, good friends, and the positive regards of many others who do not know me quite so well. . . this past year the old body has started to "wind down", and I am making preparations for the "inevitable", and I am happier than I ever thought I could be. . . not a bad way to go. . . .
Happiness is in the eye of the beholder!
Sometimes I look inward and couldn't be happier, other times I feel lacking. I don't attribute this to anything tangible, but to the mental games I and perhaps others play with themselves.
I am a hopeless optimist, but this optimism can also put a damper on life because everything in my mind is better than in reality. This can lead to disappointment with the final event. So I always relish the unexpected in life that brings a smile to my face.
I don't measure my happiness with the outcomes of life for it would end up being a turbulent ride of emotion that would eventually leave me sea sick. Life's currents as they ebb and flow, each hold their place in my heart. The happiest time of my life, dare I say was as a child. I had no possessions no responsibility, about the only thing I did have was security coming from a stable family environment. Now as I examine my own life in an attempt to recapture those childish feeling of fancy free. I have decided that "THINGS" will come and go, and with each ebb and flow I will savor the coming and enjoy the passing. Because I have found joy in having and lacking.
Sort of. I have always knew my life was 'charmed', not that wonderful things kept happening, but nothing really bad ever occured, like it did in the lives of my friends. I had a good job (when I was working), married well, had great kids who are now adults, and although I hit the big 5-0 this year my parents and my in-laws are all still alive and healthy and live close by. BUUUUUUT...my future isn't turning out the way I expected and I will be entering the second half of my life as a single woman. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it was just not supposed to happen that way. But ask me again in a couple years
Do you think anyone would even admit if their life sucked?
Oh, I would.
Actually, from an outside perspective, my life probably does suck.
I'm content enough with it, the only blight being these problems my kid is going through. If only that could be resolved, if only I can see him safely grown and settled, I'll never want for anything again ever.
But really, yeah. Most people probably wouldn't be content with my life.
It's a little "different".
What gets me is that where and what I used to be, everyone insisted that I was HAPPY - because I was so good at what I did. I was miserable - I did what I had to, to make a living. And I was good at it - the scary kind of good, where everything happens exactly the way you tell it to or want it to, where everyone follows your lead, where everyone does what you say, and agrees with you - or even when they start out disagreeing, come around to your way of thinking. I was a "mover and a shaker" - and I hated it. No one would leave me alone, and to make things work I had to be certain places and do certain things that kept me away from what I really really love.
So - I chucked it all. I worked and slaved and put away, and then - I quit. Just quit and walked away. The retributions and recriminations and "How could you DO this to us?" were nasty and vituperative. I. Didn't. Care. I am not a power-tripper; I am an artist and a gardener, a lover of life and growing things, an animal lover, and a very private person. I love silence and being alone. I chose to please myself rather than to endlessly try to please others.
So, to me, the "secret" to being happy is to not care what you have to do to be happy, not care what others think or say or do about all of the wouldas shouldas couldas, and to set a goal of achieving your own happiness - and DO IT.
After 20 years of misery, with my face constantly twisted in a rictus of a smile, I am now very very happy. The people who matter to me know it, and the people who don't matter to me never did... no matter what they wanted to think, or how their greedy grasping claws tried to hang on. I threw off the emotional vampires and succubi, and went my own way. I highly recommend it.
(the strains of "Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road" play softly in the background)
My life has not turned out the way I wanted it to but then again who's does?
But I was supposed to be living in Poland married to a nice polish woman but I am living in Milwaukee(which I love) and I married a nice country girl who is Norwegian. I work in finance and so does she but I actually always wanted to be a truck driver(local). I didn't want fancy things or a big house or a prestigious suburb or hob nob with the movers or shakers but here I find myself in a job and area of which is the opposite of what I wanted just 4yrs ago. I actually am very happy but a few regrets but generally I have came to a point money or no money I will be happy but I am amazed how many depressed people are out there.
So all in all are you happy with your life?
So you hinge happiness on being married?
I am single and struggling to get by, but I work 2 jobs.
That pretty much is my life.
I was never able to do anything creative successfully.
I would be happy to have enough money to pay the bills off and not have that stress in my life.
I also wish I could go on a vacation sometime, but I don't think that is going to happen.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
