Reading books and Writing stories makes me Happy. Going to class and listening to a teacher talk about reading books and writing doesn’t. In “Happiness and Education” Tal Ben-Shahar talks about how there are two different kinds of students in Education which are Lovemaking models and Drowning models. The lovemaking models thrive for education; they love learning new things and seeking out the pleasures that benefit from it. Drowning models, like myself, lack the integrity to actually commit to doing any work at all that doesn’t make them happy. I read about 5 different books at a time but to have to go to class and told by a teacher to read a book for that class in not something that I’ll enjoy. I seek my own pleasures in doing something for myself that I ended up abusing it.
I remember how I always used to hate going to math class in high school and how I used to always skip and sit in someone else’s class. Knowing that I wasn’t achieving anything by ditching my academic studies to sit it one of my friends class and watch them learn didn’t faze me until I had to take a test for it. Seeing my downfall I felt like I destroyed any chance of being a better person and making my family proud. I felt as if school was a burden, a curse, that I had to do and I expressed that feeling by skipping. When Tal Ben-Shahar spoke about “Lovemaking models” and “Drowning models” in his article “Happiness in Education” I thought about my time as a student in high school.
In my years at being in high school I loved reading books that I felt I could relate to. I read books in math class, art class, music class, not science class because I was always on point there but any other class I had I read books in. In my mind I could enjoy reading books all the time because that’s what made me happy in an institution that made me feel caged. I was a drowning model when it came to English class because I never wanted to listen to the teacher talk about the book we were supposed to read or the questions that we needed to answer. I enjoyed reading books that I preferred for myself instead of the ones chosen for me, and that was my downfall.
When I saw my grades at the end of my junior year I finally saw what I needed to do and how I needed to do it. I came back to school my senior year and started putting myself out there on how much I love books and learning. At the end of my dramatic change I ended up graduating most improved in high school because I put what I enjoyed so much to good use. The look on my families faces when I was called up for my award was so heartwarming that I cried. Now looking back at that memory I figured out that in seeing as how I was on the border line of failing in school I made myself work hard at doing what I was supposed to and seen that I actually enjoy the work that was given to me. I ended up turning into a Lovemaking model because I understood that I could make my education fun if I turned away from the negative aspects about school and focused instead on the beneficial opportunities that I can get from achieving goal.
Tal Ben-Shahar said that his brother loved to study psychology but hated it as a student. If people stop and think about how much easier or better school can be if what you already know is put out there then that’s better for them. Students focus on school in a negative way because that’s all they see it as when they’re assigned to do so much work. That’s what my mindset was focused on when I was in high school. My only thoughts was that I had to do work all the time and projects and papers; so I just stopped all together and starting living a life I though made me happy. Seeing the outcome of my ways made my education look like elementary so I gave myself a pity talk and got to doing what was right. Reading is fun when you do it as a group because there is so much things that you can learn from what other people say. Reading motivates me in having a happier education.
Being a college student showed me that I can make it somewhere in life and that I don’t want to be on a path that leads me into situations that I can’t get out of. I love my education and I love the different people that I get to see every day when I go to school. I now see that reading so much was the best thing I did in high school because it led me to where I am today. I limit myself to how much I read and what I read to make room for much more important things in life like my education. All in all though I know that I can’t let what I enjoy most control what I need the most. Education can have happiness; I just can’t let what I need berate what I know.
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