Has it been 4 years? 4 whole years have flown by faster than the blink of an eye. I can’t remember exactly everything, but I can remember a feeling. It’s not quite nostalgia, but that’s about as close as I can get to describing it. I must say, sometimes I miss that youthful naivety. How blissful life was back then. I’ve heard all too often now that “times were simpler back then” but that’s not the case. Times have always been rough for some people. Times weren’t simpler, though, we were. What’s wrong with that? Life is best at its simplest because when things are simple, there’s virtually nothing preventing one from realizing that feeling. This may not be it for everybody, but for me, that experience comes at the most random times. I remember sitting in a lawn chair looking out at the wide expanse of the lake I was visiting. The details are not as important here as the feeling is. That calm, content, focused feeling is what I’m trying to talk about. If one can achieve that, and successfully recall it at a later time, then any experience leading up to the initial feeling, is worth it.

Another thing is that sometimes that feeling doesn’t come from a serene view with a calm atmosphere, nor does it have to. Sometimes it comes from an experience. Hanging out with a group of friends with no goal in particular. When everything is going right and I forget about the existence of the world. Everything is happening in the relative “now”, which evokes the same feeling. It’s not quite “content” either, but I’m not sure why. Once I’m back home, or my friends leave, I snap back to reality, back to the same world I semi-eagerly wanted to leave behind. I know that last bit sounded a bit dreary, but that’s the point. How do we know we were in the good times if we don’t have a “low” to compare them to. 

I guess what I’m trying to say is, that no matter how you get that feeling, you need to be doing something. Again, that something may be different for everyone, but everybody needs to at least try and get there. Some people are always trying their hardest and the feeling arrives when they’re not trying at all. No matter what, do something. If planting gives you that feeling, do something. If reading a book gives you that feeling, do something. If hanging out with your friends late at night circling a bonfire with the sound of running water nearby gives you that feeling, then do something, anything.

Even in High School, especially, High School, it’s important to have that feeling like something you can recall when times are tough and trust me, there are times when times will be tough. Gosh, I wish I could just put a name on that feeling! That feeling has gotten me through some tough times.

Don’t just make friends, and don’t make friends that support you 100% of the time on all endeavors, cause let’s be real, we all make or will make stupid decisions, and sometimes we learn from those decisions, and sometimes we don’t. Make friends that force you to improve yourself. Also, make sure your teachers like you. You don’t have to be all buddy-buddy with them, but a little respect goes a long way. Finally, when you tell yourself you’ll do it later, you won’t. Tomorrow never comes. The only way to make sure something gets done is to just get it done.

I’ve been reflecting on it for a while, and I think I put a name to that feeling. The feeling that’s been there for me when some people haven’t. The feeling that gives me highs and makes life worth living. The feeling that makes me want to do something. In hindsight, the name was staring at me in the face all along, but that’s the thing about this feeling, you don’t know it’s there until it’s gone. That feeling…is happiness. No matter what, no matter when, try to be happy, just try, alright?