Genuine Happiness

• Caitlin Mctaggart, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2010

I looked down at my almost blank page. I say almost because there were only two things on it. One being my name-Lucas James and two being the topic question, ‘What is genuine happiness?’ I shook my head and shoved the bit of paper away from me. I had been staring at that bit of paper for over an hour and quite frankly, I was sick of it.

You see the thing was, I knew what made me happy. It was sitting on my couch all day playing call of duty on my x-box and hitting the beach at dawn to catch a couple of waves before school. But was it genuine happiness? Would I be able to live my life on only these things and be happy? My brain was screaming at me to slow my thoughts down. I pushed my chair back, stood up and stomped out the door.

I kept stomping around the corner and stopped dead in my tracks. On the pavement in front of me was a boy, only about sixteen and he was leaning against the wall. I looked closely at the face and recognized him as Mike from my school. I stopped my thoughts before they started and walked straight home and slumped down on the couch. I turned on my T.V, my X-BOX and played a few rounds of Call of Duty. No matter what I did though, I couldn’t get Mike off my mind. I decided to go and see what he was doing there after all, so I grabbed a flash-light and ran back to where I last saw Mike.

Not surprisingly he was still there. I approached him and said, “Mate, you okay?” Not very original, I know but at least something came out of my mouth. Mike’s head jerked up and his eyes widened with surprise. “Wha…What are you doing here Lucas,” he eventually spat out, with as much venom in his voice that he could handle, which wasn’t really that much. “I saw you, earlier. I just wanted to see if you were alright.” His mouth rearranged itself into a smile and he thanked me for coming and asking him that.
I walked him back to his house, as much as he objected and we talked, had a proper conversation during that time. We really got to know each other. “I ran away from home, because my parents aren’t on speaking terms anymore,” Mike told me, “I was going to kill myself but you made me realise that it just isn’t worth it.’ I was startled by this comment at first, but when the realization of what I’d done hit me, I was happy. I had just saved some one’s life!

That made me realise that happiness isn’t playing X-BOX, or surfing at dawn. Happiness is in fact finding the time of day to help someone, and to be modest enough not to boast about it. Genuine happiness is a rare thing, and not everyone gets it so savor it while you can.