Catherine Stavenik Professor Logos ENG-1100 College Writing 15 September, 2013 Sadness and Reality Happiness, the feeling

of unsuppressed joy, complete liberation of gloom, and the invincible sensation of a smile. In a world where sadness can be found around every corner, happiness creeps in to remind us what is great in life. Sadness and happiness are the root of humanity, clarity, and appreciation. Although they are polar opposites, one cannot be truly known without the other. If humans were to live with absolute happiness, our species would not know appreciation, rather, we would be spoiled. Complete happiness with optimism would cause a world of failure. What would be the incentive to try new things if you automatically know you would succeed? Sadness and disappointment keep human in reality and out of the haze of happiness. Grief reminds us what joy feels like as sadness empowers us with the feeling of happiness. Sadness is a necessary evil needed to generate mental processes of reality, reasoning, and appreciation. Complete happiness glazes over the pessimisms and failures of life. Often times, when in complete enjoyment, the brain loses track of reality, developing that moment of happiness into near ecstasy. In Jennifer Seniors writing, Some Dark Thoughts on Happiness, she explains how the imagination and happiness is the poor mans wormhole (qtd. Senior 426). Like extreme happiness, the imagination does the exact same job at accomplishing an ecstasy feeling. Despite how awful a situation, our brains can rewire, rescript, airbrush, and photo shop over any situation to make it seem positive (Senior 426). Happiness causes an illusion, a disconnect with reality. One major occurrence that happens to most Americans is reuniting with their ex. The

Stavenik 2 experiences that were positive begin to stand out, and your imagination reminds you of how happy you were (Senior 426). However, your brain leaves you on Cloud Nine, you are not thinking accurately. Your imagination leads you to believe that ending your relationship was a mistake, when in actuality, you forget the real reasons for the break-up. The imagination skips the fighting, the hating, and negative feelings, and jumps to the honeymoon stage. Like an optimist believes the glass is half full, the imagination annunciated the positive in all experiences. An excessive amount of happiness hazed the effects of reality. Sadness is necessary to create the sense of reality, despite its negative connotations. The feeling of sorrow, or gloom, carries the brain into a state of seriousness. The mind is no longer sugar coated with happiness or left in fantasy. Similar to how the imagination edits a situation to be positive, it can also cause coping skills in a time of sadness (Senior 426). In the instance of a harsh relationship that ends in separation, the sadden mind can think clearly. The feelings of regret along with remorse develop into realizations that the separation is not the end of the world, but rather an experience to learn from, despite the pain. This sadness creates the reality, the realizations that could not be seen when happiness was blocking the view. In Jennifer Seniors writings, she interviews Julie Normen concerning her miraculous study about what sadness and happiness does to clarity and focus (Senior 429). Two test groups received exact anagrams to solve, one group pessimists the other optimists (Senior 429). Both sets listened to Mozart, and then a dirge (Senior 429). To her discovery, Normen found that the pessimist did much better when listening to a dirge (Senior 429). Considering how sadness effects clarity and reality, the test proved that the focus could be reached in a sorrow environment. Sadness creates reasoning that happiness cannot focus on. Although emotions of joy and glee are wonderful, sensations of sadness are necessary for the reasoning and clarifying some situations.

Stavenik 3 Terrible tragedies and horrible situations are occurrences that every human must experience because it develops characteristics of appreciation. Despair, loss, failure, and helplessness are all feelings of sadness. However, each feeling has their opposite that could not be identified with out each other. Image a time in your life where you felt especially helpless, failed, or felt completely alone. Yet, you also experienced the relieving feelings of happiness from solving those sad emotions. Whether it be the towing company saving you from your broken car on the highway, or the Overjoying emotions of happiness of coming home to family after a terrible week at summer camp. Both these relieving feelings are what developed feelings of appreciation. When stranded on the highway, one appreciates the tow man and when homesickness is at its peak, you appreciate your family. In Jennifer Seniors findings, Gilbert did studies on the disabled and their feelings about their ailments (Senior 427). His studies showed that the disabled would pay far less to be fixed than the able would to prevent an accident (Senior 427). This is to say that the disabled did not mind as much anymore that they were disabled, but rather still enjoy life despite the accident (Senior 427). Gilbert writes, that they may even find some silver lining in their experience(Senior 427). One patient of Gilberts even said, I didnt appreciate others nearly as much as I do now(Senior 427). The disables no longer neglected the fulfillment of getting the mail or going shopping, for example, but rather appreciated the fact they were still able to complete the task despite their disabilities. Without the feelings of sadness, one could not know what appreciating or enjoying situations truly means. If every human only knew fulfillment and happiness, no one would appreciate. Sadness achieves the creation of appreciation because it generates feelings of enjoyment when sadness is taken away. Happiness and sadness, today, can be measured and studied. One test of happiness, conducted by the University of Pennsylvania was created to gage ones happiness level,

Stavenik 4 considering their amount of sadness, fulfillment, appreciation, and happiness (Senior 422). The test asks twenty four simple questions based on everyday life experiences and emotions. I wanted to see what my level of happiness was on the scale of 0.0 to 5.0. I considered myself to be a very happy person, in fact, voted number one in my graduating class as most friendly. According to the Authentic Happiness Inventory, I ranked at 3.79 and 89 percent higher across the board for my area, age, gender, and education level. I dont see this test as accurate, but considering my dangerous childhood and three situations that caused my near death, I have definitely learned to appreciate and not to worry about the small things yet can maintain my reasoning and reality. Without my past and the suffering I went through, I do believe I would not be as a happy as I am today. In my experiences and knowledge of sadness and the Authentic Happiness Inventory, I believe sadness undoubtedly decides if you are a happy and achieving or whether you become a chronic depressing person. In a world where sadness can be found in every town, happiness drives in to remind us what is wonderful in life. Sadness and happiness are the foundation of humanity, clarity, and appreciation. Without one, the other cannot be possible. In Jennifer Seniors writings and discoveries, she finds that sadness is sometimes necessary for clarity and focus, but also a positive outcome in generating appreciation through suffering. Sadness is a necessary evil needed to generate mental processes of reality, reasoning, and appreciation.