Do I have what it takes to be happy?

The 19th century Polish poet Cyprian Norwid wrote: "To be what is called happy, one should have something to live on, something to live for, something to die for. The lack of one of these results in drama. The lack of two results in tragedy."

That got me thinking.

Do I have something to live on? Well, with a job, I suppose I have something to live on rather comfortably.

What is something that I live for? Now, that's a rather tricky question.

Before I hit the age of twenty, I longed to live an exciting life: to go to places which I had never been to, to experience things that I had not yet encountered, to spend memorable time with friends.

After I graduated from university (i.e. after I passed the age of twenty), I worked hard to achieve my ambitions: to reach a certain position in my career and to have a certain amount of money in my bank account.

Now that I have just passed the age of thirty, I find myself wanting to lead a peaceful life and being able to contribute back to society.

I look back at all those years and truly wonder what I have been living for during those times. I realise that, over the years, I have pursued different things at different stages in life. First, it was to possess excitement in life, followed by achieving ambitions in life and finally, finding fulfillment in life. It then dawned on me that I pursued all those things - though they may be of different forms - simply for the sake of happiness. All along, I have been living in pursuit of happiness.

What is something that I would die for? It is rather easy to just say "Oh I would die for truth, I would die for dignity, etc". But to be honest, I really can't think of the "something" that I would die for. I guess, I would only know what that is, at the instant when I had to make a decision to choose between life and death.

Since I am in a position of lacking one (out of the three things mentioned by Polish poet Cyprian Norwid), I guess, my life will most likely be full of drama. Well, isn't that what life is supposed to be? Amidst all these drama, I believe I will still be happy, simply because I've finally realised that, happiness is what I have been living for all these years.