One of the Secrets to Happiness May Lie in Drawing Potatoes
An 8-year-old’s thoughts on coming back to the things we love
Chances are you’ve looked at your life at some point and asked, “How on Earth did I get here?”
As children, we are curious, carefree, creative beings. We dream of being hairdressers and firefighters and teachers. As the years roll by, our choices begin to be shaped by extrinsic forces and before we know it, we are living a completely different life to the one we imagined. This is not necessarily problematic: as Srinivas Rao writes in his insightful book, The Scenic Route, taking an unplanned route in life, “also means you’ll go places you never would have been, meet people you never would have met, and have experiences you never would have had. It means that amazing things will happen.”
Sometimes, though, the life we end up living can make us feel trapped. When we try to figure out where and when our unhappiness started, we may uncover hidden fears surrounding money, status and confidence, among others. We feel we are to blame for not having had the courage the follow our dreams, the discipline to take care of our bodies or the foresight to spend more time with our families. At this point, some of us try to muffle our misery with food, alcohol or Netflix feeling it’s too late to make a…
