Happiness?

Happiness is a fickle thing.

Like the rest of the trends of our lonely world, happiness moves in and out of popularity. Some days, it's cool to be happy and smiling; others, it's OK to listen to screamo music in your skinny jeans.

But, whether it's in style or not, happiness seems to be relative. Everyone has their spirit's lifted by something different. It can be something physical, something emotional, something musical or just something stupid. It's always different for everyone. And sometimes, there are days where you can't be cheered up at all...

Everyone compares emotions to a roller-coaster; they go up, down all-around and back again. In my particular case, I prefer to think of it as a series of hills, each bigger than the last. As you climb the hill of your latest emotional distress, you are able to look back and realize just how small the hill you last climbed really was. That's the thing about life, especially when you're a teenager. Everything is a huge deal. In the moment, everything seems like it's the end of the world. Then, you look back on it and realize that the whole thing was stupid after all.

In my opinion, the world thinks too highly of relationships; everybody needs one or you're not cool. As a result, there are thousands of pre-teens and teenagers giving away their heart, bit-by-bit everyday to some Beiber-haired punk who will be gone in three weeks. But each "relationship," if we can even call them that, is emotionally stressful and taxing; each break up even more so. So, is that what's cool? To be able to say, "Hi, I'm fifteen and I've had my heart broken nine times already." You answer no, but when you think about it, the answer is yes.

The same way that sex has been made cool and casual, so have the words love and relationship. All three go hand-in-hand and because of society's pressures and teenage hormones, we've have way too many babies with teenage mom's.

Happiness is a fickle thing.

A relationship satisfies you briefly, for a split-second in the clock of life. Then, when it's past, you have an hour of clean-up to do before you're ready to move on. At least, that's how it should be.

Society isn't sensitizing kids to blood and gore and language and sex. More importantly and detrimentally, it's sensitizing them to their emotions. Love and hate spring to our lips all too readily without any idea of the implications and meaning of the words themselves.

We don't even know what we're feeling. Love is actually lust that fades after a few moments; hate is merely jealousy and selfish anger that consumes us for a second. But those moments are all it takes. In one moment of either of these underrated emotions, something precious is given away or taken, something you can never get back. In a moment of lust believed to be love, the most important wedding gift is given away. In a moment of anger or jealousy, someone is injured, perhaps even killed.

This is the America I see today. No longer the land of the free, but the land of the weak. So spoiled and desensitized are we by society and social norms and peer pressure, we have no willpower to fight the humanistic demons inside of us. We are weak, incapable of being our own person, instead willingly molding ourselves to mirror the example society has given, pursuing promises of happiness and acceptance.

Happiness is a fickle thing.

What is the point? Why do we continually strive for these things society promises? Because we wish to combat the other emotions we don't like to admit are there.

Insecurity, loneliness and self-loathing. We all struggle with them at times. Why? Because society has created them.

What does anyone have to feel insecure about if there are no supermodels to compare themselves to?
Would we be lonely without a significant other if society didn't say we needed one?
And what would we hate about ourselves if we were all accepted?

Relationships are idiotic, yet we all search for one. We all search for contentment and happiness. Society promises that all that will come if we are in a "relationship." But what exactly does that mean?

Relationship is a misused word today. We all have one, several in fact. Friends, families, coworkers, everyone you interact with on a daily basis, you have a relationship with all of them. So what makes a boyfriend or girlfriend relationship any different?

The physical.

We are weak, selfish and pathetic, seeking a romantic partner too early in life simply because we cannot control our raging hormones. It's wrong and unhealthy for both parties. And, eventually, it can only lead to a bad place.

Sex, love and drugs all offer you momentary satisfaction, a concept our country is obsessed with. We want happiness and we want it now, so we take it without stopping to think about the repercussions of our actions. Society lies, tempting us with false promises. In the end, everything that brings us momentary happiness will fade or hurt.

Happiness is a fickle thing.