Happiness v Health Insurance

A year ago, I was a month away from graduating from college. I was finishing my "senior work" or undergraduate thesis, churning out articles for the student newspaper, and wondering what I was going to do with my life. My health insurance was about to go. My work study award was over and my only work prospect seemed to be riding my bike in circles, delivering food for money.

And I was happier. I was progressing, reaching towards some goal. I was bound to go somewhere. Six months or so later, that somewhere was right back to the school I graduated from at a desk job. Benefits, a relaxed work atmosphere, some good coworkers, a chilled-out 10-6. And another six months later, I began to think about quitting everyday.

Everyone I know who has a job, be it bike messenger or chair warmer, hates it.

Money can't bring happiness. Winning awards doesn't necessarily do the trick, either. Apparently, according to David Brooks' Op-ed column this week, happiness has to do with personal relationships. And while the connection between happiness and income is tenuous after a point, this does not hold true when it comes to marriage, which he claims increases happiness as much as $100,000 a year would.


While this might be obvious to the more enlightened (and chronically poor, yet not unhappy among us), this article deeply impacted a woman who I truly admire. An ex-consultant, come academic, who has worked her way up through the University ranks. She is an incredible teacher who has literally pulled so many people I know personally up by their bootstraps and inspired them to become something. Myself included, sort of. We talked about how much I hated my job on Monday. On Tuesday, she came to my desk, telling me that I absolutely have to follow my dreams. That nothing is rational. That we must do whatever it is that makes us happy.

So what do you do when you're not quite sure what that even is? Riding my bike all summer would probably make me a hell of a lot happier than sitting in this desk. But I would most certainly be unhappy if I broke my collarbone and did not have health insurance and an alternative source of income.

We need to be happy and pragmatic. Is that even possible?