The Pursuit of Happiness (Admission Essay Sample)

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
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“You got a dream... You gotta protect it. People can't do somethin' themselves, they wanna tell you you can't do it. If you want somethin', go get it. Period.” The Pursuit of Happyiness.
Happiness in life is relative; to some, it is amassing vast amounts of wealth, becoming famous or making numerous friends. Contextualized, happiness is what you make of your life. To me, happiness is good health, productive relationships, overall well-being, and financial freedom. This year, my targets have revolved around augmenting my happiness. At the beginning of the year, I set sensible and attainable goals divided into four categories: finances, education, health, and relationships. Therefore, I pledged to become economically viable by budgeting prudently and starting a side business; gain educational enlightenment by enrolling in a master's program and reading more; achieve better health by working out more and eating healthy foods and grow socially by making productive connections and learning to control my emotions.
When the year started, I suffered my biggest emotional setback yet - breaking up with my longtime girlfriend of seven years. This experience showed me that I barely knew how to control my emotions and expectations of others. It nearly drove me to depression. Therefore, I resolved to learn how to control my emotions to avert loving too much or vice versa at the risk of emotional disappointment. Achieving this goal necessitates that I begin making productive connections - friends who build and motivate me instead of associates and acquaintances that encourage me to party and drink senselessly or spend money stupidly. As such, I must perceive happiness as a humanistic component and approach to life. It implies that since the search for pleasure informs man's actions, I am responsible for and control my happiness, for I control my mind and all actions thereafter. (1) Instead of making it a temporary goal, I will make it my ultimate goal. As an end in itself, it is Eudemonia whose realization asks for virtuousness in all actions. (2) Thus, to be happy, I must lead a productive relationships-filled and emotionally rich life.
All human beings are in an endless quest for something - wealth, power, status or enlightenment. However, unknown to most is that wealth is not the key to happiness, but happiness is the key to wealth. Therefore, my primary financial cum economic goal will be to learn how to budget and adhere to this budget. In an age of fake lives on social media, numerous young people are struggling living within their means. I must work tirelessly throughout the year to learn how to budget and save enough money to start a side business to augment my income. Realizing this financial freedom will also be key to realizing my set educational goals. I must raise enough money to enroll in a master's degree program at the local internationally acclaimed University of Nairobi. In the next enrollment in September, I hope to join the Master of Science in Entrepreneurship and Innovations Management program. As Kenya works towards her Vision 2030 manifesto, I want to position myself optimally to be a pioneer innovator who creates entrepreneurship opportunities for other young Kenyans. As such, I must purpose to read more books since this master's program is researched-based and demands that a student reads countless books, research articles, and current affairs publications to keep abreast of new developments.
Attaining the above-mentioned goals rest of my aptitude to maintain good health. I must be of sound mind and body throughout the year to not miss a single deadline or milestone. Good health is more than just passing my yearly medical check-up. My ideal health is keeping fit and eating healthy foods. To keep fit, I will enroll in a local fitness program - Adus Fit Club. I will be attending five days every week. I will be under the tutelage of locally revered and internationally certified fitness trainer and coach Julius Wambugu alias Adus. He runs his program from Easy Fitness Gym located on Thika Road mall. Since the chief principle of this program is only consume what you need, I will adhere to a strict protein-based diet.
Overall, my goals this year will focus on helping me become happy. Although toms people define happiness in terms of