Benedictine College welcomed the Class of 2029 and marked the end of Beanie Week, a long-standing tradition of the college during its Opening Convocation Sept. 2 in the Nolan Gymnasium. Excitement, with a tinge of relief for the freshmen, filled the air.
The Class of 2029 marks a new record in the college’s history, with more than 600 new students. Yet, the freshmen were not the only people in the gym.
Sophomores, upperclassmen, student-athletes, faculty and staff packed the gym, eager to welcome the incoming freshmen and gain a new piece of wisdom from Convocation speaker, Arthur Brooks, a professor at Harvard University, and coauthor of the New York Times bestselling Build the Life You Want.
Brooks’s message to the freshmen and the audience was unique because, as a Harvard professor, he teaches on the art and science of happiness. As human beings, happiness is something we all seek and desire. Yet we fail in our search, trapping us in a constant cycle of pursuing material, emotional, or physical indulgences/stimuli.
“Happiness isn’t a feeling, and that’s good news,” he declared.
Happiness is a combination of enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning. Enjoyment is “pleasure, plus people, plus memory,” he said, which creates a stark contrast to the quest for pleasure.
Another step towards happiness is understanding true satisfaction. Brooks defined true satisfaction as “the joy one gets from an accomplishment after struggle,” which stands in the face of the desire for comfort. This emphasizes the need to endure hardship and push beyond one’s limits to achieve one’s goals and desires.
Yet, out of all these components that help us find happiness, Brooks was adamant about the search for meaning. Meaning is perhaps the crucial motivator behind our search for happiness, because it encourages the person to truly discover the “why” of one’s life.
In total, the Ravens student body was charged with beginning the new school year embracing the call to happiness, by creating meaningful moments with others. Push beyond limits, and discover the meaning of our life.
