Pursuit of Happiness or Happiness of Pursuit

Happiness. The most overrated goal of every individual. ‘I just want to be happy.’ That’s what we always say. We joke around Kung san ka Masaya, suportahan ta ka! We tell a friend Kung di ka na masaya, umalis ka na. I say ‘I’m not happy anymore’ and the thing next I know I’m depressed. I want to leave and take refuge somewhere.

In the movie Pursuit of Happiness, Thomas Jefferson was quoted twice for using the phrase Pursuit of Happiness twice in the Declaration of Independence. The main character wondered why put pursuit instead of plain happiness. And so he questions, is happiness something you simply pursue but you cannot actually achieve? Is it?

A friend told me that I never seem to be really happy that’s why I keep on leaving a good job. I may be always have the bubbliest friends and the contagious laughter on my exterior but inside me is a heart that will never be contented. Perhaps, there’s truth in that. Perhaps that is why I like the phrase ‘thrill of the chase’. I just want to pursue happiness but once having it, I realize I don’t really want it because, then what? I like the quest, the search. The less you have, the more you look forward to something. It’s the chase and the pursuit that I’m after, not the happiness itself.

I watch Ally McBeal series and I always wonder why Billy left Ally in the first place. They were each other’s love of their lives. Billy left Ally because he knew that Ally would never be happy even with him. Truth is, I hate Ally everytime she feels that she is the biggest failure in the world. But, maybe, I am just like her. Ever-complaining how sorry my life turned out with the random panic attacks of underachievement.

But what do we know? I’m having a great time and I don’t even know it. I’m having the time of my life in my own happiness of pursuit or maybe pursuit of happiness. Whichever!