happiness

a well put together list about the 7 secrets to happiness. my reflections on those seven are as follows:

1. would love to have friends who really knew me and with whom i felt i could be me through and through. anyway, my sis let's me be me and still loves me and i cannot express how much that means to me.
2. well, for me, the highlights of my college days were all related to my academics. i'm still proud of the scholarships, awards and honors i received. didn't do much partying ... or cavorting with TAs for that matter! those risky adventures came awhile later :-)
   
3. i'm always thinking about possessions, which i continually collect, and how they are weighing me down. okay, so i do have a giveaway pile in the corner of my room ~ hey, at least i've moved some things out of my "keepers" to "inbetweeners". eventually they'll make their way out of my life.
4. to get that balance, i need lots of me-time which i use to do stuff i love: write, read, learn, think, exercise and dance.
   
5. pizza, ice cream and chocolate ~ that's all i have to say about giving in to temptations
6. wow, what a toughy. this one is really hard. but i'll say, in the spirit of #6, that i can actually read and communicate via Korean a great deal, regardless of scores and tests.
7. i'm so guilty of this one but i'm a big believer in the 2-reason rule and have been practicing it for the last several years, thinking of at least 2 reasons for every decision i make (of the following combos: 2 PROs for the choice or 1 PRO for the choice and 1 CON for choosing something else or 2 CONS for choosing something else). i started this because i was getting caught in my own vortex of reasons to do or not do something that i started putting myself at the mercy of someone else's opinion of what i should do. it's good to be able to rely on others for advice but i have to make my own decisions, even if they suck