Happiness hit her like a train on the track...

Let me preface this entry by saying I've been stressed lately. And I mean really stressed. October is the month of class projects, midterms, mock trial craziness, law school applications, and the dreaded LSAT. Deadline upon deadline upon deadline. Those deadlines have been wearing on me...

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So Thursday I stopped by Fresh Market for the first time in months. As silly as this sounds, it was probably the best part of my week. I walked down the aisles mesmerized by the different cheeses, the heirloom tomatoes, the olive bar... I forgot how much I loved this place!

That's when I realized what I'd been doing to myself for the past few weeks. I'd gotten so caught up in my future that I deliberately neglected the things that make me happiest right NOW: cooking, farmers markets, reading, going to church, exercising, spending time with friends, going home for the weekend. For what? An LSAT score that will probably be mediocre at best?

Sometimes we get so caught up in reaching goals and being productive that we feel as if personal happiness isn't important. The goal is what matters, and we don't deserve to be happy until that goal is achieved.

But what kind of life is that?

I guess the point of all this is that we need to remember that the little things that make us the happiest matter. Our happiness matters. Yeah, the LSAT and law school and future employment all seem HUGE. But we shouldn't hate our lives right now in an attempt to make a better life in the future.

So go read a book or lay out by the pool or bake a cake.

Do whatever it is that makes you happy, and do it without regret.