Happiness Equals Reality Divided by Expectations

Sometimes it's really hard for me to know what to do, and if I'm making the right decisions. Some nights I'll wake up and wonder if I have chosen the right job, the right pet, the right home. If I have made the right decisions and if I will continue to make the right ones. People tend to have a mis-conception of me ( I suppose because I let them) that I know what i'm doing and where i'm going in life. But in reality, I am just as lost as any one of my counter parts. 

What has really got me thinking about this is a discussion I had recently with a friend. He asked me if I was happy. Simple question right? But with a very long winded, complex answer. Sure, I am happy some of the time. Is that how we are meant to live though? Going day by day un-happy waiting for a glimpse of that happiness you see in your life? And if not, how do you go about fixing that pattern?

I read a book a little while back titled "19 Minutes" by Jodi Picoult (which I very much recommend to anyone by the way) One of the characters is a professor who's main accomplishment is developing a formula for happiness - that happiness equals reality divided by expectations - which means that if your expectations are way higher than your reality you will never be happy. For me I have such high expectations of my life and where it's going I can't help but wonder if that is really the problem. That my reality just can't live up to my expectations. If so, do I really want to change that? Should I lower my expectations possibly resulting in living a mediocre life or should I be driving myself harder to produce a reality that puts all my expectations to shame? And if I choose the latter, am I not setting myself up to fail? Can you really have a reality the exceeds anything you could dream of?

What do you think?

Big News

Well I have been praying and praying, hoping and wishing about going back to Guatemala. I love the country so much and the friends I have made there are so precious to me. I have been wanting go down in Feb. but worrying about the money and only getting to be there for a week.
Today I got an invitation, to come down in March for another 6 week internship. I am really ecstatic about getting to go down and see my friends and kids again. Just look at their sweet faces -

Best Friends for Life

This Thanksgiving I decided to go. I decided to go down to Florida to be with the friends I made while in Guatemala this summer. It was a wonderful time! We had so much fun just being together again. We went to Disney which was The best experience ever! I have never been before and it amazed me! -

We also got to go to a Gators football game :)

One of the best parts though was getting to meet up with some of the people we made relationships with over the summer in Guatemala and getting to meet some new friends and Amber's family