The Day I Accidentally Stumbled Upon Happiness

<p>&ldquo;Why are some people so much happier than others?&rdquo;</p> <p>This question didn&rsquo;t come up in one of my philosophy seminars but, unexpectedly, in Portuguese class. We&rsquo;d been talking about the&nbsp;<em>pret&eacute;rito mais-que-perfeito do conjuntivo&nbsp;</em>(the past perfect subjunctive) and had discussed a few examples. My professor said the easiest way to think about it is to imagine a person who completely wants to rewrite their past. They tend to use the past perfect subjunctive quite often. Like this:</p> <ul> <li>&ldquo;If I had won the lottery, I would be rich now.&rdquo;</li> <li>&ldquo;If I hadn&rsquo;t accepted that job, my career would have flourished.&rdquo;</li> <li>&ldquo;If I had married her, I could have been happy.&rdquo;</li> </ul> <p>This awfully reminded me of my own thought patterns. I couldn&rsquo;t help but think back to my life choices of the previous years: abandoning my engineering career, quitting a master&rsquo;s in product design, trying to escape my problems in other countries, and finally returning to university to study languages and philosophy. Somehow, everything seemed wrong.</p> <p><a href="https://stephanjoppich.medium.com/the-day-i-accidently-stumbled-upon-happiness-f5c35a193e8e">Read More</a></p>