Happiness: Do we find it, or choose it?
Can you remember the first time you felt truly happy? What did it feel like? When I was younger, my happy place was performing on stage. Where I was pretending to be in a make-believe world, forgetting about who I really was, just for a couple of hours. I enjoyed the exhilaration of being vulnerable in front of the audience (as weird as that sounds.) When I was younger, I had dreamt of being a famous actress, because I thought that was what would make me happy. But as I got older, I found that those moments of happiness have changed. Little things like dipping my feet into the water of the Mississippi River in America; something I'd heard about all my childhood and teenage years, and then suddenly I was there. Or the wind blowing through my hair while I enjoyed a speed boat ride along that same river, soaking up the rays of the sun. Or seeing Times Square in New York for the first time; which felt like stepping into the movies. Even in Vietnam, when I was very ill, I somehow clim