A Student Reflects on the Pursuit of Happiness

By Jude Tabra ('18)

The happiness unit in our grade 12 English course was certainly placed at a pivotal point in our high school experience, amidst a time when the stress of university was especially taking a toll on our mental well-being.

Throughout this unit, we explored a variety of texts and media pieces, including articles, novel excerpts,  Ted talks, and a documentary film, all surrounding the theme of happiness. After exploring the pros and cons of the pursuit of happiness as a class, we ventured off to conduct individual research in order to arm us with information to write our own happiness articles.

Contrary to the typical academic research essay that we have written in this course, this particular assignment allowed us to reflect our personality and creativity through an engaging writing piece. We were given a lot of room to explore varying aspects of happiness, with the help of optional prompts such as "How can we define happiness?" and "What is the relationship between success and happiness?"

Some students chose to delve into an aspect that was not mentioned in the prompt; however, it must have been approved by either Ms. Martino or Ms. Wright. For example, I chose to write about the pursuit of resilience. This individualized topic allowed me to create an article unique to my interests. Although each of us took different routes in our research, I think it’s safe to say that the discreditable way the pursuit of happiness is perceived in the mainstream has revealed itself to us all.

Our second assignment was to plan and execute a panel discussion in groups of approximately 6 students, focusing on the topics that each of us had analyzed relating to happiness and wellness. We completed our final panel discussions in front of a class of younger students for 25 minutes. We were given some time to prepare with our groups to decide on a moderator, and brainstorm questions and prompts for the discussion. However, the ultimate goal was to be natural and conversational and to answer any questions that the younger students had.

This experience was new to a lot of us, and although it was nerve-wracking for many, it allowed us to gain experience and engage with students in the grades below us. We all know how difficult the first years of high school can be, and the goal for this panel was to give them some form of insight into understanding that everyone’s path to happiness is different.