The Day I Accidentally Stumbled Upon Happiness
<p>“Why are some people so much happier than others?”</p>
<p>This question didn’t come up in one of my philosophy seminars but, unexpectedly, in Portuguese class. We’d been talking about the <em>pretérito mais-que-perfeito do conjuntivo </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>“If I had won the lottery, I would be rich now.”</li>
<li>“If I hadn’t accepted that job, my career would have flourished.”</li>
<li>“If I had married her, I could have been happy.”</li>
</ul>
<p>This awfully reminded me of my own thought patterns. I couldn’t help but think back to my life choices of the previous years: abandoning my engineering career, quitting a master’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>