The Student Printz

Issue date: 1/30/07 Section: Opinion

Armand Nicholi, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, asks his students each year whether or not the people around them are generally happy. Almost always he is answered with a resounding no.

Happiness is also the reason why you have come here to USM. Like me, you are here to receive a college education and hopefully secure a better future for yourself, all in the pursuit of happiness. In addition, those who truly love you want nothing more than for you to be happy. Philosophers have been searching for it, and religion claims to know how to acquire it.

Happiness is the one thing we as a human race desire above all else, and, ironically, it is the one trait that constantly slips through our fingers.

Generally speaking, if I were to ask college students what would bring them happiness in life, most would answer in something similar to "fame and fortune." It is safe to assume most students who attend college desire to be successful, hoping it will bring them happiness.

In "The Question of God", Nicholi writes, "In the United States, more than a quarter of a million people attempt to end their lives every twelve months, and about 30,000 succeed."

The U.S. makes up roughly one twentieth of the world's total population yet leads the world in its consumption of natural resources and food. We are currently living out the prosperous life we so eagerly seek and still remain utterly unhappy. Why?

I think the source of our general unhappiness lies in our infatuation with material goods and being successful.

Famed philosopher, C.S. Lewis said while in college he had "dreams of success, fame, love, and the like… I have had dozens of them… dreams in which I said clever things… fought battles, and generally forced the world to acknowledge what a remarkable person I was." Lewis later declared it was during his college years he was at his unhappiest point. I have come to believe that the formula for success lies, not in materialism and success, but the quality of the relationships in my life.

Recently, I have been fortunate enough to have traveled to many different countries and experience a variety of different cultures. For me, traveling was my "fame and fortune" I grew to depend on for my own personal happiness.

I have managed to create some good memories, but

I can honestly say the times when I have been at my happiest have been not in another country, but among

my close friends here at USM.

I relied on some wild adventure to make me happy, but it was right here in front of me the whole time. As C.S. Lewis so aptly put, "My happiest hours are spent with three or four old friends in old clothes trampling together and putting up in small pubs or else sitting up til the small hours in someone's college rooms, talking nonsense, poetry, theology, metaphysics over beer, tea, and pipes. There is no sound I like better than laughter."

While in college you have the chance to meet thousands of people and make some lifelong friendships or you can be consumed by material goods and the lure of success and miss out on a lot of good times. It's your choice.

This is a column of opinion written by Printz Staff Writer Earl Bell. Comments about this column can be sent to printz@usm.edu.

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