Reflective Essay about True Happiness

Some of the most astounding and important things within our lives simply cannot exist in a materialistic form. The physical items around us may provide a happiness, a purpose, a fulfillment that is naught but a temporary illusion in the face of what exists beyond the materialistic plane. The best things in this life, in our lives, are not simply the materials we garner throughout our lives. True purpose and true happiness are not merely items we behold within our grasp, but rather something built through time and experiences.  

How long does the happiness a material item provides last? From what I have seen and experienced in the course of my life so far, not awfully long at all. A game someone downloads to their Xbox, the money entering the pocket of a smiling teenager, the new tablet handed to a customer over the counter: what is the ultimate value of these things? For something to be considered valuable it must be regarded as having a level of importance or merit, yet the importance of these things isn’t lasting and remains replaceable by yet more materialistic goods. Arguably, an irreplaceable happiness is worth infinitely more than one that can be tossed out and superseded by another.  

The things that stay with you are the best things in this life: the value of something that leaves a mark or perhaps even totally shifts your worldview simply exceeds the 3rd iPhone received upon a 16th birthday. These things exist in many forms: moments, personal values, social connections, lasting experiences; no matter how they may exist they are something impactful and wildly important. This importance is different from the kind an item gives its owner because it’s not something you can find again. That TV purchased at the store can be bought again, but the individual and immeasurably complex feelings a moment can provide will never again be felt in the same way.  

I have experienced what it’s like to have an overwhelming attachment to materialistic items. It like living in an ocean where each shred of happiness just washes up here and there upon your shores, yet the source remains permanently out of reach. Yes, I certainly felt happy, until I didn’t and I needed something else to fill the void that had just been created. Things that are just things cannot continue to provide you with a lasting fulfillment, because they fade away. You go from one car to the next, from one console to the most advanced model: you run full bore through all these things that can be given up. Friends, the things I have learned, the sights I have seen, all of the meaningful things that have changed me for the better were never something I purchased at the local store. 

Materialistic goods do not hold the same power as experiences. Experiences are us: our pasts, presents, and futures collectively combined to shape our very existence. Nothing is comparable to the things that remain with us forever, the things that impart their essence into our lives. The best things in this life are not simply things, and despite how much time may pass materials will never outweigh the value of feelings. Life is a journey and as we carve our paths throughout it there will be an innumerable number of times where we are going to encounter physical things and that isn’t innately wrong. What we must remind ourselves of, however, is that there are plenty of things beyond things within this world that provide a far greater wealth.