A Personal Experience of Happiness - Essay Example

Thesis statement: Memorable moments in life (driving a car, getting engaged, and studying in the U.S.) can lead one towards happiness as a personal experience. 

In my motherland, women are not allowed to drive vehicles. But in the U.S., there is no discrimination based upon sex. Here, women can get driving licenses and drive their cars. When I was able to get a driving license, I came to realize the real meaning of equality. For instance, in Saudi Arabia, it will be difficult for me to get a driving license. So, I learned the essence of freedom as a person with a driving license. Besides, driving a car changed me a lot. For instance, I can drive my own car without further assistance from others. This is really important to me as an individual from a male-dominated society. To be specific, from driving a car, I learned to be a part of mainstream society and it changed my attitude towards U.S society.

As an individual, getting engaged is an important event in my life. One can see that my education in the U.S. with a scholarship helped me to have a suitable alliance. For instance, I made use of my education in the U.S. as an opportunity to be free from male domination. To be specific, most of the male-dominated societies hesitate to allow independence to the womenfolk. The thing that I learned from getting engaged is that education can help one to choose the most suitable individual. Now I feel so happy because I am independent to take decisions on my own. Seligman opines that “Happiness in the present moment consists of very different states from happiness about the past and about the future, and itself embraces two very distinct kinds of things: pleasures and gratifications” (102). Now I realize that happiness is interconnected with individual freedom and liberty. When a human being is free from external pressure, there exists high scope for development in the future. Getting engaged changed me a lot because I realize that a suitable alliance is one of the factors of happiness in life.

As an individual from the Middle East, especially from Saudi Arabia, my life as a student in the U.S was so interesting. My education in the U.S. with a scholarship helped me to realize the importance of proper education in life. The most important thing that I learned from studying in the U.S. was that quality education is one of the factors of success in future life. I consider my education in the U.S. as a unique opportunity to be self-reliant.  Besides, the same is one of the factors of happiness in my life.  My education in the U.S. changed me a lot because it transformed my outlook towards the outer world. Now, I feel so happy because I can drive my car, I am engaged to a suitable individual and I have proper education. Besides, all these personal experiences are closely related to the happiness that I feel in my life.

Summing, some memorable moments in day-to-day life can transform life as a whole. Besides, one can find happiness in simple events in life. When an individual is imprisoned, he or she realizes the importance of freedom. On the other side, human beings are not ready to find out the secret of happiness. To be specific, the search for happiness must be a personal experience, not as an external element that leads towards material success or momentary benefit.