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I believe that neither passion without exertion nor drive without interest is enough to

achieve true happiness. I believe that no matter your talent, upbringing or luck in life, if

one works hard for something you believe in, one will always achieve Jefferson¶s so-

called ³pursuit of happiness.´

I see people out there with firm devotion yet no work ethic to reach their goals. They sit

down every day with their dreams, and believe in their own hypocrisy that mere

enthusiasm without drive will get them to their dreams. I have little respect for those who

say but do not do.

But it is the latter group of people, those with work ethic but not belief, which are more

common and more severe an issue in our lives. With relative ease, I can think of many

people with pertinence to said group, including my own family.

My parents were born in China with little money. Back then, and in China today,

competition between your peers was fierce; my mom and dad spent every waking

moment studying past the curriculum to achieve enough academic ranking to come to

America and work as computer programmers making three-digit salaries.

But I¶ve long since figured out that they did this out of necessity and pressure, and not

out of passion. I admire their hard work, but when I look deep down into their hearts, the

work they do is more a paycheck to them than a pursuit of inner gain.

Ôeither of these paths seems like the correct lifestyle to achieve life¶s true goal of

happiness.

But then I see people of all different classes, who have both passion and drive. I see

people from all different income levels, from kindergarten teachers to doctors to

musicians, working hard for what they truly want to do. Salaries are not what drive them;

the job itself does.

My history teacher was a remarkable example of just that. Born and raised as a child

prodigy, she went to a special private school and later double majored at Harvard. And

while she taught university for a while, she now teaches high school history. Many

people have trouble seeing a Harvard PhD working as a high school teacher, but I admire

it. She does it out of her passion for teaching, and does it well past the job requirements,

working hard to do what she believes in, not to earn a huge salary. Once, my history

teacher told her class, as she was recommending students for the honors class next year:

³If you are considering this because you want a higher GPA and nothing more, please

leave as there is no chance you will succeed in said class.´ From her I realized that

despite the undividedly hard-working environment in which our education system

pertains, the true reason to be in school isn¶t for the opportunity to go to higher education

or getting a good job, but to learn the skills you need to truly find and work for your

passion.

And today, I work as hard as my parents did, but not for the pure goal of financial success

but the dream of truly learning, so that one day, I might come up with enough wisdom

from those before me to find a true passion of my own.