Happy

"When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life." — John Lennon

What really is the meaning of life? When you were asked as a child what you wanted to be when you grew up. what did you say? Perhaps a firefighter, or an Olympic champion, or a pirate, or a superhero. Probably not the same thing you would say if you were asked now, and probably nothing like what you actually are today. At some point, we learn that our childhood ambitions are not realistic and we settle for some career that we think we can manage.

I could never understand why people ask me where I wanted to be in five years, or have a ready answer. Never mind planning twenty years or so ahead. It only takes a few minutes to radically change your life situation, and life is so unpredictable. You never know what opportunities are going to present themselves for you, or what obstacles are going to appear to seriously restrict your options. You could die tomorrow. So why is it so important who you think you will be when you grow up?

It would seem more important to consider what you want to be right now, that could continue into the future no matter what life threw at you. Whatever we want in life, we want it for one reason only. Because it will make us happy to whatever degree. Happy is what we really all want to be when we grow up, whether we are happy being a superhero or an accountant. John Lennon understood life where his teacher did not.
His mother was right when she said that happiness was the key to be life. Go out there and be happy. That's what life is all about.