Happiness for Beginners

by Katherine Center

The most important thing to remember is that getting what you want doesn’t make you happy.” “It doesn’t?” I asked. “Not for long. Happiness is more about appreciation than acquisition.”

“I gave you Jake because you’re headstrong and accident prone, and he’s our medic and I trust him to patch you up. I gave you Jake because you’re the best map reader we’ve got, and he’s damn near blind. And I gave you Jake because you absolutely never believe in yourself—and he finds a way to believe in you every damn day.”

I would certainly never come back—but not because I’d never want to. Only because that’s how life is. It moves too fast—faster and faster the older you get, no matter how much you’d like to slow it down.

children can’t see their parents clearly until they grow up.”

But the things we remember are what we hold on to, and what we hold on to becomes the story of our lives. We only get one story. And I am determined to make mine a good one.