I’m Back… to Happiness

What I’m Drinking as I Write – Iced Mocha

I pulled my hair up for the twelfth day in a row. At what point did I become so irrelevant? Isn’t it funny how we can strive to do such admirable and great things, but struggle to perform small tasks? As an example, I recently passed the Level II exam of the CFA Program (easily the hardest thing I will ever do in my life), which had loads of notoriously difficult math, yet I have to whip out my calculator for simple multiplication questions. Is it the anticipation and adrenaline of having plans that require us to dress up that makes it so much more attractive to do so rather than an average workday?

The more I learn and experience, the more I realize the parts in my life that are missing. I’m currently reading a book titled, “The Happiness Project”, written by Gretchin Rubin. A recent sentence stuck out to me:

“What you enjoyed as a ten-year-old is probably something you’d enjoy now”.

That was the piece I was missing in my life – the same things that made me the happiest when I was a child. Reading and writing. 

I find myself drawn to books, statistics, and podcasts that involve some form of psychology. I’m so intrigued, my favorite thing to look forward to on my daily lunch break is sitting in my car and reading my most recent bookstore find. I think my favorite author will forever be Malcolm Gladwell. 

During my investment internship interview with my company, my (now) boss posed the question, “If you didn’t work in finance what other job would you have?”. I think my answer has been and always will be: an author. 

I have so many passions in life. During my teens I briefly thought I wanted to become a dietician. I attended a seminar with my father and asked a counselor if she would recommend it. She responded, “you have to be a pretty good test taker, you cannot get through different steps of the program unless you pass a test with a certain score”. Immediately I rejected the career path altogether – I have never been very good at passing tests. At least, that’s what I told myself until I learned about something called the CFA Program (one of the most ironic moments of my life).

What we want for ourselves changes over time. Our strengths change over time. But I think sometimes we forget the simplicities of finding happiness. I have no regret; my sabbatical was necessary as I had to apply all my efforts into conquering the beast (L2). Hi, I’m back to blog again.

Happy sipping.

– E