Young thinks, "You got used to your life, whatever accomplishments and troubles it happened to hold, and adjusted your expectations accordingly." Do you agree with her? What do you think makes people happiest?

Young contemplates happiness, thinking that studies have shown rich people aren't necessarily happy, and people who are poor or disabled aren't necessarily the most depressed. She thinks, "You got used to your life, whatever accomplishments and troubles it happened to hold, and adjusted your expectations accordingly." Do you agree with her? What do you think makes people happiest? What makes you happiest?

My personal belief is that you make of your life what you put into it. You strive to do the best you can at everything you attempt. You have to give as well as take in life, and your happiness can be its own reward. You must go after your dreams, but don't make them a condition for your happiness.

I understand the appeal of saying that happiness comes from within. It can be a statement of personal responsibility and empowerment. If you're not happy, you can do something about it. You don't blame someone else or expect another person to make you happy. At the same time, from the perspective of someone who cares a lot about social justice, there is something discomfiting about the notion that happiness comes from within. It is a narrowly personal construal of happiness, when in fact, external conditions, such as larger social systems, can have a lot to do with our feelings of happiness and contentment and satisfaction with our lives. It can stand in the way of sustained efforts toward genuine social change. So, if you want to look within for the source of your unhappiness, go for it. But don't look just there. Don't accept the blame for external conditions that you had no role in creating. And if you want to do something about the circumstances of your life and many other people's, too, that's what social change is made of.