Happiness is a funny thing. It can be elusive—slipping in and out of frame, blurring at the edges, and then suddenly coming into focus. The smiles, laughter and joy that accompany the emotion are worth searching for in life. As I flip my calendar page over from 2016 to 2017, I find myself repeating a comforting ritual of the New Year. I reevaluate what in my life makes me happy and what doesn’t.
Finding the parts of life that yield joy isn’t difficult to do. However, you need to remember that not everything you need to do daily is going to make you happy. That is reality. So, how do you figure out ways to be happy overall without losing touch with the real world? My solution this year is to simply find a little happiness every day through a fact.
The process of learning something new is a journey. From the first moment of intrigue to the acquisition of the information—your destination—the information takes your mind somewhere new. You become the Lewis and Clark Expedition of your own intellect, mapping a way to unexplored regions of knowledge.
My goal for 2017 is to learn at least one new thing every day. I’m not picky about what it is; there should just be something unknown being conquered. To be honest, I did a bit of a test-run of this resolution in the last few months of 2016. My co-workers were always sorry they asked, as I dropped truly random factoids I had picked up. From “fun” facts about the Russian beard tax of Peter the Great to chilblains (they’re gross; look it up if you want to know), these tidbits of information almost always end with a laugh. That is the best part of my pursuit of knowledge. It doesn’t necessarily matter what I am learning; what matters is that I am opening up new avenues of conversation—different routes to a moment of happiness. Many of the facts I learn and then share are silly, trivial things, but that’s okay. I’m not an expert historian. I’m just someone who loves to learn, living in a time when so much information is available.
This month’s issue focuses on several people who understand the importance of knowledge. We featured five teachers who are inspiring their students every day to go above and beyond the words on the page. These individuals look for new, innovative ways to approach their topics, hoping to make a lasting impact on each student. As a part of this feature, we also got to hear from the students. Their excitement for the future and what they might accomplish leaps off the page. I hope they never lose that joy in the discovery of new information.
