Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below:
Abraham Lincoln said, "Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." In other words, our personal level of satisfaction is entirely within our control. Otherwise, why would the same experience disappoint one person but delight another? Happiness is not an accident but a choice.
Assignment: Is happiness something over which people have no control, or can people choose to be happy? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
My Essay:
Happiness is an elixir to all diseases, so everyone wants happiness and most of them think that it comes from success. But even if we fail something, we can still choose to be happy.
Last year, our school held a basketball competition. Our class had entered into the semi-final and all the students in our class were very excited. Moreover, we had just beaten the team which was considered the best in our grade and my classmates were hopeful that we might enter the final game. On the day of the semi-final, the players of our team went to the field in our cheers. But as soon as we saw the members of the other team, we knew it would be a hard match. One of the players in their team is as tall as 1.93 m, much taller than any of our players and we also learned that their team was the only one which hadn’t lost a single game.
The match started. To our disappointment, our team wasn’t playing well, and the best player in our team was followed by the tallest in theirs at every pace. Anxious and worried, we girls jumped onto the platform beside and shouted at the top of our voices. After sometime, it seemed that our cheers had gave my classmates some energy and they began to catch up, slowly but gradually, we were only two points behind. But just at that time, the first ten minutes were over and we came to a stop. The players were tired but hopeful, and we kept cheering them. However, when the match started again, our opponents seemed to become stronger. They got more points and we were soon eleven points behind. Meanwhile, our throats were burning, but we kept shouting for our classmates. Though we caught up some points, at last we lost by only one point.
When we got back to the classroom, all of my classmates were disappointed and sad. One of the players even cried. But our teacher came in at that moment and said, “Cheer up everyone, we just lost by one point and we are already the top four. We still have a match and let’s get the third place!” Then one of my classmates suddenly went to the dais and wrote something encouraging on the blackboard and one by one, over ten of our classmates all wrote down the words they wanted to say. All of us were greatly encouraged and smiled. We felt a sense of happiness even though we didn’t win.
So if we choose to be happy, we’ll be happy. It’s all up to our choices.
