Happiness

Every child has the dream of becoming rich or famous when they grow up. In Chinese culture this ideal future is drilled into our heads as “the happy future.” My parents have been enforcing the idea that money makes you happy since I was a little girl. My mom, the more traditional one, repeatedly told me I had to support her when I started making money. According to her the only way to do this was to become a doctor or lawyer. Growing up in an environment with this flawed dogma about what makes a person truly happy and successful, has made believe that a high paying career is the only way of life. The idea that money equates to success is not only directly fused into my culture, but indirectly as well. We have a Chinese New Year that is based around money packaged in gold and red envelopes. At Chinese banquets/weddings the primary color is gold also representing money. The list goes on. Generally, Chinese parents are very competitive as well when it comes to their children. At family gatherings, my mom and grandparents are constantly showing me off to relatives as they in turn are trying to do the same. Due to the pressure most Asian children have the mindset that if they don’t make enough money, they’ll disappoint their family. In high school I tried to overachieve in academics and extracurricular activities, thus putting my body through a lot of stress. My parents saw me break down several times over lack of sleep. My dad finally came up to me and tried to instill what he thought a “happy future” meant. He told me he didn’t want me to be rich and miserable because there is such a thing despite what mom said. I remember him saying mom thinks that being rich is happiness so she wants happiness for you. However she doesn’t understand that happiness differs among people. So do anything that makes you happy, rich or not.