HAPPINESS

Here is a speech I wrote for my Bat Mitzvah in school. Since I spoke about happiness, I think it is very appropriate:

Good evening everyone ,

Thank you for coming to celebrate this special event. It really means a lot to me. My name is Esther Lowen. The subject of my speech is happiness.

We all strive to be happy, yet isn’t it strange that we only get a glimpse of it now and then? Who doesn’t want to say, “I have everything I want and everything I need?”

Nobody seems to be completely happy. We try for a while until a parking ticket or an F on a test ruins it. Well I think we have this whole happy bussiness wrong. We chase something that does not move. Happiness does not run. It lies in daily ordinary things.

Like waking up in the morning and eating a full breakfast. Happiness is seeing your friends every day and playing outside until dusk. Happiness is watching a movie as a family and spending the week-ends on the sofa reading a good book. Happiness is missing a school day because the snow is too high. Happiness is when you were very sick and suddenly it dissappeared. Happiness is every little thing just waiting to be appreciated.

The key to unlock happiness is gratitude. When we start appreciating everything we have, everything G-d has given us, we will be happy. So when we get that parking ticket we will be grateful that we did not have an accident while speeding. When we get that F we will be grateful we have a whole new year to improve. Even if we all have hard times in our lives we have to keep a smile on each day, because happiness is important. Happiness doesn’t come from riches and things. It is worth something when it comes from the bad. Like a star, it shines brightest in the dark.

Happiness is the key to everything. A rabbi from Tanach used to teach his students to find the good in things. He would start learning with a joke to open the minds of his scholars to be able to learn better.

So when bad things happen, we should be positive and when good things happen we should be grateful. For to know how rich a person is you do not count how much money he has or how many expensive things he owns. You count how many things he has that money can’t buy. Thank you again everyone for coming, to my family and friends. No one could be as rich as I am to have such special people in my life. 

This is what makes me happy!