Lately I’ve been thinking about what “the good life” really is and by reading others blogs it’s made me believe even more that there really can’t just be one good life and that there is no such thing as “the good life”. People may think they have it figured out or that there can be the same good life for everyone but everyone has different lives and has been brought up in different environments. We all don’t think the same and no one wants the same thing out of their lives. We all just need to want “the good life” and what that means to ourselves. Like for me it means that I will be healthy, happy, have a family and loved ones that I care about, have a career, and travel in my future. If I stay true to myself and try to achieve these goals in my life then maybe I will live my own good life, but I can’t predict the future. No matter how we want our lives to be in the future it may not happen so having a positive outlook and accepting change and the bad/unlucky things that will happen will help us to live better. As we get older our ideas on our lives will change so I believe that staying positive and living your life as it is now and trying to plan for the future will help us to live our versions of “the good life”.

    What I enjoy doing the most is relaxing. After a day of classes and homework, all I want to do is lay down, eat something, and relax. I love the weekends because I know that the next day I don’t have to wake up and worry about anything, I can just do whatever I want and not stress about schoolwork. Some people might say that I’m lazy and should start my work or do something productive but I think that everyone just needs days where they can relax their mind and body, and not have to stress about their lives. Too many people get overstressed and worry about the little things going on in their life when they just need to sit down and sort their thoughts, take time to themselves.

Stress becomes negative when a person faces continuous challenges without relief or relaxation between challenges. As a result, the person becomes overworked, and stress-related tension builds. Stress that continues without relief can lead to a condition called distress — a negative stress reaction.

Relaxation is the key to relieving stress. I absolutely love relaxing and getting away from the hectic world we live in. There are so many things happening on this earth that people can’t keep stressing because it won’t get them anywhere. There are too many things to worry about. That’s why when I’m older I want to be able to get away and travel to places where I can sit back and enjoy life once in awhile. I want to have a career and a family and enjoy the things that come with that, but then have vacations where I have time to think and relax with nothing interrupting. My good life wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t have the time and money to take care of myself and enjoy the pleasures of getting away and relaxing.

    I’ve focused a lot on thinking about the present and living your life now to enjoy it, but I realized that if you don’t plan for your future you’ll be stuck thinking about the past. For my near future I would really like to learn what I want to do as a career for the rest of my life. Right now I am really unsure of what lies ahead of me and I don’t like not knowing what I want to do. I think that if I had a real passion for something and enjoyed learning about it that I would enjoy my classes more and get involved in my education because I would know that I need this information for the career in my future. I envy the people that are so excited about their careers and can’t wait to get out there and experience it for themselves. Hopefully very soon I will find that one thing that I am really interested in and want to pursue further. I realize that not all people know what they want to do even if that’s what they tell you. But these people at least have an idea and a passion for something. I have goals for my future that consist of having a great career and a family but right now I have no idea what I want my career to be. I guess it’s good that I do have these goals for myself but I think I just need to do some research on things that may interest me or one of my classes that may interest me in order to discover what I want to do. In my future I want everything to work out and in order for this to happen I have to plan ahead and focus on my life.

    After reading What Makes You Happy? written by Linda Colling, I realized what true happiness is all about. It’s not about money and material possessions or the pleasure you get from them, nor is it about quick fixes or beauty and success.

“Our happiness should be strong enough to withstand the trials, challenges, and traumas that we all face, according to Schoch. “

To be truly happy you need to experience unhappiness and overcome it to understand it’s value. Too many people in this world rely on money and the simple pleasures in life to fulfill their happiness. When really studies have shown that even with the more money you have and the more material things you own, you still are not happier:

“We are no happier now than we were 50 years ago, according to recent research, even though we are materially far better off. Dr Stathopoulou lists a good marriage, good friendship, good workplace environment, good sleep, good diet and enjoying activities.”

These are the things that can make a person happy. Happiness can vary with different people but overall people want similar things in life. I agree with Dr. Stathapoulou with his ideas of happiness because these things you can not get with money. I also agree that money is not what I need to be happy. Yes things like clothes and cars and jewelry can make you happy, but just for a short period of time, they will not last. I know that good personal relationships and good health are the key.

    It has been 2 years today since my friend Kathleen passed away from brain cancer. She was only 16 and had her whole life ahead of her. When I look back on it I realize how unexpected it all was. When she was in 7th grade she would get really bad headaches all the time and the doctor’s gave her medication and didn’t know what was wrong with her. A little later on they found out that she had a huge tumor inside her head. Her family in friends were in shock. One day she was fine and healthy and living her life normally, and the next she was in the hospital getting brain surgery. She had the tumor removed and was becoming healthy again, over a period of about 3 years. She came back to school in 10th grade and everyone was so excited and happy that she was back. We never expected that once again she’d develop more tumors in her brain. This is what caused the end to her life.

     This shows you that you never know what’s going to happen tomorrow or the next day, your life can change in an instant. I’ve learned that I don’t know what’s going to happen in my future and I need to live my life now and be worried about the present. I should try to keep myself healthy now and do the things I know will make me happy and set up a good life for myself in the future. My friend didn’t have a chance to go to college and get her license and do what I am doing right now, living. I should take advantage of this and know that I am doing what she cannot and am very lucky. I don’t have anything holding me back, I should strive for greatness.. live my own good life.

While I was searching Google for something on the good life I found a blog that I definitely agreed with. In this blog Maria Palma explains how she thinks that in order to live a better life that you need to be in the moment and think about what you’re doing in the present, not living your life in the past or future. She says:

“I used to wonder why I didn’t have much of a memory for certain events and details about my life. What I’ve come to realize is that I was one of those people who never lived in the present moment. I was always thinking about what happened in the past and fearing the future. My mind was always thinking – replaying broken records full of bad songs. I would often forget my conversations with people because I was always thinking about something while they were talking to me.”

I can see where she’s coming from because I have a terrible memory and always forget what people say because I am thinking about something else. I hate how I do that and I always have to make them tell me it again later on. I can take her advice and live in the present instead of thinking about what I need to do the next day or how my life was in the past. She always says how..”However, if you stay in the present moment and only think about all the abundance you have before you – right at this very moment – your brain will create a new memory of only good things like prosperity and wealth. That sets the tone for what the future will bring to you.” It doesn’t matter how it was in the past because that is behind you and you need to worry about what is going on right now. You can’t change the past, you can only work on the present. And the present sets the tone for your how your future will be.

    When I think of my life in the future, I think of a life where I am happy and healthy. Health is a very important factor in achieving a good life for yourself. If you aren’t healthy then what’s the point of setting other goals for yourself and planning out your future. You can’t live a life without good health because you may not live at all.

“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 80 percent of older Americans suffer from at least one chronic illness, such as arthritis, diabetes, or heart disease. Managing and controlling these illnesses with a positive attitude can help you live a healthier life.”

What is also true about this article is that in order to live a happy and healthy life that you need to have a positive attitude and outlook. The mind and body work together and if you don’t think positively then you cannot be truly healthy mentally and physically. It is important to stay healthy throughout your life so that you can prevent from having serious illnesses in the future. Some illnesses are out of your control but you can prevent many others that are the result of poor health choices. I believe that my “good life” could not be much of anything if i had a serious illness or knew that I wouldn’t be living much longer. I know that health is very important and in order to be happy that I need to be healthy as well.

    While watching Pleasantville directed by Gary Ross, I thought about what it was like to live in the 1950’s and if that time period was “better” than life now or the other way around. In the movie the 1950’s are represented as perfect and everyone is innocent and ignorant to an outside world. There’s no crime and no violence of any sort, no swearing or controversy at all. I know that this wasn’t exactly how it was in the 1950’s, but just as they portrayed it in Pleasantville. It seems like the perfect life and the perfect town for all of the residents in Pleasantville. They don’t have to worry about bad things happening to them or risks of any sort. But.. Is this life too good to be true? Are they missing out on more of the pleasures/excitement in life? Or do you think that this is the perfect life, the life that you wish you had?

What I believe is that I wouldn’t want to live the life of the residents in Pleasantville. I think that they are missing out on things like music, art, and the excitement of knowing there’s risks and danger. There lives seem too fake and foolish. I mean it would be great to live a life and not worry about getting robbed or someone committing a crime. But I think that the people of Pleasantville were too much of the same, everyone had the same ideas, way of dressing, and schedule of their day. It’s too boring and uneventful, nothing ever changes. That is why I thought that it was great when things started to change because of David and Jen, and the colors started to appear. The people in the town started to realize what they were missing out on, and that they weren’t really living the perfect life, “the good life”. They were living a lie and they realized the enjoyment and happiness they got out of the changes happening. Change is what really makes a good life. People need to change in order to improve themselves and make up for their mistakes. This movie showed me that change is necessary and that everyone needs to change to grow and succeed in life.

    Last year in my 12th grade English class I had read a book named Ordinary People by Judith Guest. This book is about a teenage boy named Conrad and his father Calvin who struggle with the loss of Conrad’s brother Buck. Buck had drown about a year earlier when he and Conrad were sailing on a lake and a massive storm hit their boat. Conrad felt a huge amount of guilt because he was the one that lived and his brother was not. Conrad became severely depressed and attempted to commit suicide. His parents brought him to a psychiatric hospital where he spent time getting better and talking to a psychiatrist. He was recently let out and throughout the book is trying to recover and become “normal” again.

“Things were so different at the hospital. People were, you know, turned on all the time. And you just can’t live like that. You can’t live with all that emotion floating around, looking for a place to land. It’s too exhausting. It takes so much energy, just to get through a day, even without all that soul-searching we used to do.”

This quote from the book shows that in order to live the good life you must be happy. You cannot live a good life if you are depressed and mentally unstable. Conrad who had attempted suicide and felt extreme guilt and depression had to recover and reinvent a new life for himself. He wanted to be normal again and live a good and happy life free from mental breakdowns. He would never be the same person but he knew that in order to live well he had to think positive and try hard to overcome his depression and anxiety. He wanted to be happy again and achieve “the good life”.

    Reading Foxfire by Joyce Carol Oates in one of my other classes has made me realize something about “the good life”. This novel reveals things about five different girls in similar situations. All five girls are having trouble with their family and being accepted in society. Their parents have abandoned them and left them to figure out life on their own. The girls form an all girl gang called FOXFIRE and make their version of “the good life”. The girls bond and become a gang of blood sisters. They rely on only each other and make their own family together. Legs, Maddy, Rita, Goldie, and Lana begin a new life for themselves as FOXFIRE. They do the things that they believe in and rebel together against their parents and society.

I think that there are many forms of “the good life” and that these five girls had made their own. They were treated very poorly by their parents and therefore had no understanding of what a family was. Their good life could not be one of family and success, and so it was one of rebellion and sisterhood. The girls felt that their bond with each other was the only thing they needed and counted on in life. This “good life” was not necessarily “good” for other people but it was what worked for them and gave them something to live for. It brought them understanding in the world and it was to them “the good life”.