Claim

Topic and concluding sentences

Lead ins

Evidence

Commentary/analysis

Aniket Chakradeo

Mrs. James

HSE3: Period 4

26 August 2024

Truly Happy

CLAIM: The two most important contributing factors to happiness are doing what you love and being with people that you love.

Doing what you love is one of the most influential factors in determining one’s personal happiness. In the Happy documentary by Roko Belic, we learn about an old Brazilian surfer named Ronaldo Fadul. He doesn’t have much money and is quite aged, but he doesn’t let that affect him. He sees surfing as a religion that he will follow his whole life.(Belic) This story depicts how he is still happy in life despite living a simple life. Surfing keeps him happy and healthy in life. He chose to pursue his passion rather than a typical 9-5 job, and this is why he doesn’t throw a fuss about his living situation. To contrast, we are shown the opposite side of this. Roko Belic’s documentary also shows us the life of Hiroko Uchino in Japan. In Japan, people work simply for the sake of working. They don’t actually love what they are doing, but they just keep working until they die. This phenomenon is known as ‘Karoshi’ (Belic). This example paints a depressing picture of how people in Japan work too much in order to provide for themselves and their families. They work way too much and don’t get much time to spend with their loved ones. This vicious cycle leads to their inevitable death or Karoshi. Essentially, these two examples show us how we should work a job that we truly enjoy doing. We should always do what makes us happy, like the surfer Ronaldo, so that we can live a content life and don’t die miserably like Hiroko Uchino.

The other major contributing factor to happiness we saw in the documentary was being around people that you love. The Happy Documentary by Roko Belic also discusses how people live in Denmark. Denmark is known for having free health care and exceptional co-housing facilities. These co-housing communities have about 15 families living and having fun there. These families work together to cook meals for each other and have a common area where the kids can play together and the adults can sit together and talk (Belic). This shows us that being surrounded by loved ones creates a positive atmosphere. These people don’t have luxurious houses like ours, but they are content with them as they get to spend time together and don’t have to cook every day. They take turns so everyone only has to pitch in once or twice a month. I’ve also really connected with this attribute in the last few years. In March of 2020, the covid-19 pandemic was spreading all around the world and we were sent into lockdown. What started as a 2-week break, quickly became a 2-year quarantine period. During these 2 years, our family barely left the house. That meant that the only people we were seeing and interacting with were us four. For most families, those 2 years were terrible. However, I would say that those were some of the best years of my life. During those 2 years, despite not being able to go outside, or hang out with my friends, I still enjoyed that period as I spent quality time with my family and had a chance to bond with my sister before she goes off to college. All in all, we don’t need fancy things to be happy in life. As long as we are with our loved ones, will we be truly happy.