How to Be Laura

I’m an over-thinker, I’m a list maker, and I’m trying to figure out how to be happy.

I started this journey because I’ve always wanted to write…something. I have pages and pages of half-finished thoughts, book ideas, and incomprehensible scribbles. So this year, as a sort of resolution, I have decided to join the masses and put my thoughts out there, on the internet, for anyone (someone?) to read.

Why am I doing this, really?

I love to try new things (I once had a thesis adviser call me “delightfully all over the place”) and I get excited by new ideas very quickly. I’m a researcher by education and I love diving deep into the rabbit holes of the internet, academia, and really any topic that grabs my attention. I love to learn, I love to share, and I love to try and figure out how to make myself a better, happier, and slightly more high-functioning person. So, naturally, I picked the question that philosophers across continents and centuries have struggled to answer: what is happiness and how can I get some? (Okay, so not the exact question).

So what is happiness?

I think there is “big” Happiness (let’s call it capital “H” happiness) and “small” happiness. Happiness on a cosmic, holistic, transcendental scale, and, let’s say, the happiness of a moment; of seeing a friend (photo), watching the clouds, sharing a joke. Can happiness lead to Happiness?

Armed with the conviction that the most important journeys are often the hardest, I’ve decided to turn happy into Happy by mindfully adjusting my life, one week at a time, for 52 weeks. There will be pitfalls, failure, hilarity, and sadness, but I’ve decided to let myself be okay with that. And I hope you can, too.