Key to Happiness

“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” — John Lennon

I remember going to kindergarten and the teacher asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. My first answer was I wanted to be a veterinarian. I distinctly remember the teacher telling me, “oh, you’re going to spend most of your life in college, and you’ll be in so much debt.” I was 5/6 years old. Like I knew was debt was.

I was asked again a few year later, and my idea of what I wanted to be changed to wanting to be an orthopedic surgeon and attend Vanderbilt University. The teacher, this time, told me that I had a great dream, and to keep reaching for my goals, but something seemed off. Was I living my dream, or was I just looking at the money?

When I decide to attend nursing school after high school, everyone was so excited. To be completely honest, so was I at the beginning. I was working at a doctor’s office after school, and truly enjoyed it. Then something changed. I did terrible in Anatomy and Physiology. It was like something was telling me that I was not going down the career path I was meant to.

I truly felt like my calling was somewhere else, but I just could not find it. I was just miserable with life. So, I ended up dropping out of college for about two years. Not after two more major changes.

I believe we need to stop pushing college so much on American kids. I grew up believing that going to college was the only was I could grow up to be successful or happy. We were taught that we would have higher income and better job security, and that just simply is not always the case.

There are welders who attended trade school for around 10 months and make a median salary of around $60,000. We have factory workers who easily make twenty dollars an hour just by putting time in on a job and learning what they can. Let’s not forget about the carpenters who are not limited to the amount of money they can make. They can easily make a six-figure salary, just buy building houses and running their own business and hiring a few workers.

What about the diesel mechanics who make large paychecks for a year in a trade school? You also have people like my husband who works at a dealership as a ford mechanic and is not limited to the amount of money he makes in the slightest. Every little certification he gets is a pay raise.

The key to making a happy life for kids is them realizing that they do not have to grow up and go straight to college. Yes, I am in college now to get a business degree, but you do not have to. The key to a happy life is doing what makes you happy. It is working a job that does not make you feel like you are working. A job where you are smiling every day.