Learning doesn’t stop with age. Education is a life-long learning process. I think education is the journey which helps us achieve our goals. Mark Van Doren in the article “Happiness in Education” states, “Our best chance for happiness is education”. He means that the best happiness is found in education. But how do we find happiness in education? Education creates more happiness in my life by giving me more opportunities to grow as a better individual. It opens my mind which increases my self-confidence and allows me to prepare to achieve my career goals and in turn make me feel much happier in life.
Education expands our mind by acquiring knowledge in our day-to-day life. My career goal is to become a Registered Nurse. One of the pre-requisites which I’m currently studying is General Psychology. Psychology is the study of behavior and mental processes. Inter- personal skills are required to be a nurse. These skills are gained by knowing things, so this course will give me knowledge on these skills. I get a deeper understanding of how to interact with people. Also, knowledge allows us to change our perspectives and consider other ideas in order to analyze and think critically. I can understand ideas much better than I did before. I can increase my happiness by taking more social sciences courses to widen my knowledge and understanding.
Education helps build self-confidence and therefore increases happiness. Self-confidence is being content with yourself with your capabilities, abilities, and intelligence skills in your daily activities. All these things will make you happy with yourself. Education helps to build and acquire new skills and these build self-confidence. If we go to school and work, we learn to balance and be more responsible. Character traits are an asset and can benefit us. Self-confidence builds our character and it’s a part of our inner self. For instance, I go to school full-time. I don’t work, but I have to manage my household (husband and children), so I have to balance my college responsibilities as well as household responsibilities. Although it is difficult, I have learned to balance, multitask, prioritize and manage time. All these skills have helped me accomplish my tasks and in turn boosted my self-confidence. This has made me happy with the person I have become and leads me towards my goal.
Going back to school after twenty years has increased my self-confidence and happiness. Learning or achieving a degree in another country is difficult because the rules, language, and processes are different. Overcoming these differences will make me happier in education. Adaptability to a new environment is important to increase your happiness. A new or unknown environment usually creates stress and fear. One chooses to either adjust to this new environment or not, but I chose to overcome this obstacle and thus build my self-confidence. As Tal Ben-Shahar in his article “Happiness in the Workplace” has mentioned that, “What we need if we are to implement change in our lives is courage. And courage is not about not having fear but about having fear and going ahead anyway”. He is saying that if we implement change in our life, we need courage as well as fear to move ahead in life.
Now, how does education help you accomplish your dream? My life-long dream has been to become a registered nurse. Since my childhood, I’ve liked to care of people and help them. I have migrated from India to the U.S. I achieved my GED and I’m currently doing my pre-requisites in LaGuardia Community College (LAGCC). I want to get into the LAGCC’s nursing program, accomplish my nursing degree, and eventually work in a hospital. In order to attain this degree, one must be perseverant, committed, responsible, and hardworking. My professors and I both see these qualities in me. For example, LAGCC has a very strict attendance policy. I agree with this because I believe attendance is very important to learn because if you miss out on course work, it is harder to keep up with what’s going on in class. This is the reason why I haven’t missed any class or assignment ever since the semester began. I think our presence and commitment does make a difference. I think being a nurse will make me happy in life. I believe that education is the bridge which will link me to my profession. As Tal Ben-Shahar has stated in his article “Happiness in Education”, “As I discussed earlier in the chapter on goals, having a clear destination in mind liberates us to enjoy the journey.” This means that if you have a clear goal in mind, then you have the freedom to enjoy the journey. Since I have a clear goal in mind, I’m enjoying my journey, which gives meaning to my life. My happiness comes from knowing that I’m going on the right path that will lead me to accomplish my dream.
I think that there is one thing I need to change about myself. I have a habit of over-analyzing. I have a tendency to over-analyze things and as a result, miss out on simple things. For instance, whenever I have a task to do, I think too much and end up with exhaustion. When I was in the midst of acquiring my GED, my teacher, Charles Perkins used to give essays to write in class. I used to sit thinking and watching the others, while they use to start writing and finish off on time. I remember he used to say, “Let go! You don’t have to be perfect! Just write whatever comes in your mind!” So, hopefully I will try to change myself.
In addition to over-analyzing, I think I should participate in class discussions. I do not participate more in class because first of all, I’m shy, and secondly, I think I may be wrong. In Ken Robinson’s video entitled “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” he says, “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original…We stigmatize mistakes. Mistakes are the worst things you can make.” Mr. Robinson’s words have inspired me because they have helped me realize my weaknesses and bring out my strengths. I will try to come out of my “shell” and share my ideas in order to raise my self-esteem and get one step closer to success.
In conclusion, education will help me grow and be a better individual, and allow me to prepare for my journey to reach my destination. Pursuing my nursing degree makes me happy because I feel I’m one step closer to accomplishing my career goal. Hence, I think I can increase my happiness in education by acquiring knowledge which will broaden the horizons of my mind and result in learning new skills eventually boosting my self-confidence.
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