Happiness Report 2

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Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. – Joseph Addison

This series of posts is based on the quote above. Once in a while, I will examine my life by looking at the things I am doing, the things I am loving and the things I am hope for, and try to come up with an overall happiness rating of my life. You can follow the entire series here.

Date: Thursday, October 21st, 2010

I am doing…:

1. Applying for a visa to go to UK next year as part of the Colgate London Economics Study Group. Yes, there is a lot of necessary and unnecessary bureaucracy involved, but I am really looking forward to going to London. It will be my first time going to Europe and I will finally get the chance to reconnect with many of my old friends from high school who are currently studying in UK. Furthermore, going through the application process together with my group mates does help me get to know them better (since I did not take the required class with them last year) and definitely strengthens the bond between us.
2. Starting my volunteer work at Evernote and WolframAlpha. I think I’ve become some kind of volunteer addict. LOL. Helping Evernote localize their product allows me to introduce one of my all-time favorite tech services to the Chinese people, and helping WolframAlpha expand their knowledge database gives me the chance to sharpen my research skill by handling some of the most random and bizarre research requests (e.g. finding public-domain images of some obscure airplanes from World War II). Totally weird, but 100% fun.

I am loving…:

1. Psyc Brunch! The first Psyc Brunch finally took place today. This is after much discussion and preparation by the Psyc Club (of which I am the vice president). And I finally get the chance to screen a TED Talk! Hopefully, there will be more opportunities for me to screen TED Talks around campus and if enough awareness and interest are generated, we might even be able to host our own TEDxColgate event (something that I was hoping for in my last Happiness Report).
2. The buzz generated by this website. Not even in my wildest dream could I have imagined the interest and buzz that this website has generated. It was only slightly more than a month ago that I unveiled this website. Since then, there have already been more than 8,000 page views generated! I truly appreciate all the feedback (positive and negative) that my friends have given to me. They keep me going. I will write a separate post later on (maybe when the page views hit 10,000? ) to explain the purpose of this website and to answer some of the questions my friends have been asking me about this website. Once again, thank you. Yes, YOU, who are currently reading this.

I am hoping for…:

1. Some excellent grades in all my classes.
2. Getting my UK visa without much trouble and starting to apply for a Schengen visa.
3. A good time at the Analyst Weekend and the NYC Wall Street trip in November.
4. The luxury of dedicating one hour per day to do volunteer work.
5. The luxury of dedicating one hour per day to improve my knowledge about the finance world.
6. The luxury of dedicating one hour per day to study for GRE.

Overall Happiness:

P.S. I just realized the TED Talk I screened at Psyc Brunch today was about happiness. (Dan Gilbert asks, Why are we happy?) Coincidence?