School is hard. It just is. I have yet to find someone who loves it in¬side and out.
But what is it about school that makes it so daunting? The dead¬lines? Homework load? Boring textbooks? I guess if I were to pin it all on something, it would just be the sheer fact that it’s work. A lot of it. Let me ask you something: How do you handle difficulties? Avoidance or procrastination are popular choices.

There’s rationalizing a way out of the prob¬lem all together, and then there’s the rare option of facing the problem head-on, just doing it. But why do we usually choose the easiest way out? It’s because we’re happy-seekers.

Being happy is pretty much what we live for. We do what we do in life for the goal of being happy, even getting through the hard things. It’s because the end result will make us happy.

Let’s be honest, what we’re doing in our lives is mostly to benefit ourselves. If it does some good for someone else, then that’s just a pretty little side perk, which in turn makes us feel even better. Think even about volunteer work you’ve done, helping out with little kids, cleaning up the beaches, saving whales, buying that expensive fancy water, because .1 percent of the proceeds goes to starving people in God knows where. Whatever it was, doing that made you feel bet¬ter about yourself, didn’t it? But that’s not a bad thing is it? Being happy isn’t a crime, right? No, it’s most certainly is not.

Do you know what the word Happiness real¬ly means? It comes from the word “happening.” It’s about the now. So maybe right now I don’t feel like gettin g work done, I’d rather watch TV. If I’m really in the pursuit of happiness, the TV wins, because it is the now. So back to the original idea of doing hard work. Could there be a reason for approaching our problems head on? A cause for running to them instead of away or around? I’m going to say yes. It’s joy. It’s that feeling with¬in of “I did it. I can accomplish it if I put my mind to it.” Joy is like happiness, except that it comes from within us, instead of outside of us.

How about that feeling when you’re done with all your work and you have that blessed thing known as “free time?” Yes, yes, yes, it’s so worth it! “Just do it” produces something worth it– happiness radiating out from within you, something that lasts, that builds, increasing into a well of joy.

Storing it up for later as a memory, the knowl¬edge that you overcame something hard, that you are capable of taking life and all that it brings, head on, and that even when you fall, you can get back up with a smile on your face no less, that is joy.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some work to do that just might get done this time.