Ashton Chowning English 101 Narration Essay September 12, 2016 Secret of Happiness
Day 2: “Life becomes more meaningful when you realize that you'll never get the same moment twice”- Unknown. A number of days are insignificant to us; they are days that nothing exciting or dramatic happens. With the 100 days of happiness challenge, this is not the case. A few posts that started out as a simple Instagram trend for 100 days turned out to become a handful of the happiest days of my life thus far.
Day 11: “Keep your head up. Keep your heart strong” - Ben Howard.I was nothing more than a average student with some art capabilities. Without these abilities, I would have never met my inspiration for the 100 days of happiness challenge. Libby Rule was not only an inspiration for me but also an inspiration for good deal of students at Chillicothe High School. She was always pushing me, from my artwork, to just simply being me. Libby had been participating in the 100 days of happiness challenge for many weeks before I started. At the time I was exceedingly self-degrading, and Libby knew that. She supplicated me to try the challenge, saying that I would be become more optimistic. I did not believe her at the time; I did not know that the challenge would become a pivotal moment in my life.
Day 16: “Before you change the world around you, you must learn to change the world within you” - Unknown.In a brief period of time I started noticing what truly makes me happy every day, even if it was not a blue-ribbon type of day. I began to pursue activities I would not have had any intention of doing, like joining different clubs to going to highest point in my home town at 3 am. My mood had changed, and others could also tell, for example, I become enthusiastic in school events. Even though the challenge is simply over a collection of 100 happy moments, it is a reminder of all the beauty in my life.
Day 55: “Some days nothing happy really happens, and that’s okay” - Unknown. As I was getting deeper into the challenge I realised that some days are simply like any other. They did not provoke a dissent or move me in anyway, but these are the best days. During most the days in the challenge I thought I would be doing some tomfoolery that no one would want to know about. Those days turned out to be the best days to post about.
Day 30: “For what it’s worth: It's never too late to be who you want to be. I hope you live a life you're proud of, and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start over.” - F. Scott Fitzgerald. Before starting the 100 days of happiness challenge I was not proud of the life I was confined to; I was passing through my own life more than living it. With this challenge I realized that I needed to construct a new game plan for my life because 100 days does not last for an eternity. After I have finished the 100 days of happiness challenge I want to go to the locations of the post when I labeled that day as a bad day. I want to take in the environment of the place and change my perspective on each bad day location. If I cannot find anything happy about the place, I will go back to it until I do. Going through this journey of happiness that not only taught me that life is better when your are happy but that every place that I visit should have a positive impact on me in some way.
Day 45: “And this is the part when we find out who we are.” - Unknown. Each paragraph of this essay begins with one of the 100 quotes that belongs to the pictures in the 100 days of happiness challenge. The days that meant the most to me, chances are, meant zilch to someone else and that’s okay. The 100 days of happiness challenge is not a happiness competition. I originally intended to follow the latest trend of posting pictures and quotes for 100 days. The challenge surpassed the outcome that I imagined it would have on me. I now know that the ability to take grasp of a moment is the first step towards happiness, and I will never let the guidance of this challenge slip my mind. A simple 100 day Instagram trend for 100 turned out to become some of the happiest days of my life so far.