Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} The main thing you want is to be happy. Yes, everybody wants money and love and success, but all that stuff goes back to wanting happiness. Essentially, you have a ­limited amount of resources, and it’s up to you how to divide those resources to get the biggest happiness bang for your buck. So what makes you happy? Buying a lot of expensive gadgets? Nope. Multiple studies have proven that a greater dose of happiness comes from memories than from material possessions. When you purchase something, you get a rush of happiness. But that feeling is short-lived; pretty soon that new iPod or cell phone or Xbox game becomes just another thing you own. It isn’t special anymore, and you certainly don’t get any surge of happiness when you pull it out for the 57th time. With a trip or some sort of adventure with friends, you get that happy feeling for the duration of the excursion, but also when you get back home. Every time you reminisce about your trip, you get that warm-fuzzy feeling. University of Colorado at Boulder social psychologist Dr. Leaf Van Boven says that it’s easier to mentally improve past experiences than to improve our opinion of material purchases. So if it turns out your new $200 phone is a disappointment, there’s not much to reinterpret. You either spend more money on a new one or live with an unsatisfying cell phone. But with nearly any experience, you can put a positive spin on something that may have seemed to be a negative incident. Personally, I can recall what – at the time – was a horrible experience that I now look at with some fondness. It was the last night in Paris of my 9th grade trip to France; a few people from the tour group went on a separate night excursion to the Eiffel Tower. By the time we finished the climb and watched the light-show, it was past midnight. The only way of getting back to the hotel was by taxi. My friend and I got into a yellow cab and handed the driver our hotel address, carefully written out by the French teacher. At first we were excited; we had just been 905 feet above Paris and were now on our very first taxi ride. Then we were gripping the seats as we sped along the streets of Paris being rocked side-to-side on impossibly sharp turns. The driver was blasting unfamiliar foreign music and talking angrily on his cell phone. After about 25 minutes, he tried to drop us off at a strange hotel and didn’t believe that it was the wrong one. Our scary driver started yelling in incomprehensible French. After a good bit of persuasion, he drove us off in a different direction. That was when we noticed the meter. Before leaving for La Tour Eiffel, my friend and I had asked our teacher and tour guide how much money we would need for a cab ride, and we brought more than enough. However, with the incorrect direction our driver had taken, we were quickly surpassing our expected fare. We watched in horror as the meter clicked up and up and up, pleading for it to stop. Imagine being a 15 year old girl in a foreign country with no cell phone service, not enough money and stuck with a creepy, balding, middle-aged cab driver. Scary. When we finally reached our hotel, he held out his hand and we ended up giving him all the money we had, including the small Euro coins we were saving as souvenirs. While hugely scary and stressful at the time, I now look back and laugh at the incident, looking at it as a sort of adventure. Most memorable experiences are fun, but even the ones that aren’t can be looked at positively, maybe as a character-building experience or a lesson learned. You don’t even have to spend huge amounts of money on trips to make lasting memories. Just spending time with friends and doing something new will be rewarding. For instance, instead of going out to the movies- spending money on gas, tickets, and over-priced junk food- watch a movie at home with friends and make a big deal about it. There are so many adventures you can make for yourself that will make you a whole lot happier than that [insert expensive and unnecessary thing].