What is happiness?

Sonnet 98 by William Shakespeare (1609)

								From you have I been absent in the spring When proud-pied April, dress’d in all his trim, Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing, That heavy Saturn laugh’d and leap’d with him. Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell Of different flowers in odour and in hue, Could make me any summer’s story tell, Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew: Nor did I wonder at the lily’s white, Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose; They were but sweet, but figures of delight, Drawn after you, you pattern of all those. Yet seem’d it winter still, and you away, As with your shadow I with these did play.

Today is a gift, that’s why they call it the present

Little drops of water, little grains of sand

Make the mighty ocean and the peaceful land.

Thus the little minutes humble though they be

Make a mighty ocean of eternity.

Why do we consider twenty-four hours to be a day when a day is actually the period of time between dawn and dusk? Why do we have seven days in a week instead of eight? What’s the reason for time? Does time exist without the existence of a human being, who interprets what time is - with his human consciousness? Simply put, does time exist without someone reading the clock?

I have always been curious to find out some basic answer to a very simple question: what is time? I have read several theories on time but time cannot be understood generally with theories alone. Many philosophers have defined time. Newton has defined time as a dimension in which events occur in sequence, one after another. Einstein has proved that time is relative. Similarly, Kant and Leibniz have defined time as neither an event nor a thing whereas they claimed it can never be measured for just because we have a calendar or a clock doesn’t mean that we have more or less time.

The cycle of human life revolves around the sun. As sun rises and sets every day, every individual with some exceptions wakes up and goes to bed. It is apparent that we live in time-space. Every instant of our time is like a flowing river. The moments that we share with friends, loved ones and family, once gone, cannot come back. These moments are then stored in the form of images in our brain. These images float around like the pendulum every now and then.

For example, I have realized that my childhood days cannot come back again. Now they are stored in my memory in the form of images. Time waits for no one and it surely will make us old men. My granny when she was sixty years old told me it was just like yesterday that she was a girl. Occasionally, I bump into my old friends and classmates. Seeing them I could feel like what my granny said.

 In life men are controlled by time. They are always fighting against it. One must learn to make use of time to its maximum. A man may waste ten years and the next ten years may go down to the drain. Have you ever thought of how many years left you have? Time is precious so one must control it well. Use it for working out things that may benefit mankind in the end. Use it in the right way and you will gain too. Appreciate your love ones and don't take them for granted. Remember with every sunrise and sunset, a day is gone behind you. Even if one cries for it, it will not return. Men may be of high intelligence yet no one can rewind the clock to suit them. Estimate the time that you have and contribute every minute if you can. Fulfill the purpose of life so that it will not be a loss and an illusion of the past.

Tick, tock, tick, tock. Most of the time we can never seem to get enough of it. Sometimes it flies, sometimes it crawls. To realize the value of a year, ask a student who received a failing grade. To comprehend the value of a month, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby. To appreciate the value of a week, ask the person in need of a new heart. To know the value of an hour, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet. To fathom the value of a minute, ask a person who missed the train. To actualize the value of a second, ask the person who just avoided being hit by the train. To measure the value of a millisecond, ask the person who won a gold medal in the Olympics.

Before making any further statement on time, one needs to understand what time is. Time allows people to perceive motion. Furthermore, people perceive it differently. It is extremely important to understand that the concept of time is not easy to explain and not easy to comprehend even among each other. And every culture has its own time-concept. Our country is not an exception. We can be as pragmatic as Americans. That is schedules are rather important for us. But at the same time we are like South Asians and sometimes we waste our time talking to people eager to find out unnecessary information. Some people are quite punctual and schedule their time rather thoroughly. But some of them tend to slacken and instead of suiting to time they relax as if there were years and years to come.

From time to time we face the problem of a wrong handling of time. Many individuals cannot plan, that is why they are always late making the surrounding people cool their heels. An old friend of mine once told me she had been invited to a wedding by her relatives. She was as always punctual and came in time – at five o’clock. She waited for half an hour but no one came. An hour passed and the guests began to arrive. She asked the reason of it – and was astonished. The wedding should have begun at six o’clock. The young couple on purpose appointed the ceremony an hour earlier because their relatives and friends often used to keep the newlyweds waiting.

I wouldn’t say that our local time system is somewhat different from that in other countries. In my opinion it depends on the way one is brought up, that is on the family background. For instance, as a kid I got to school by bus. It took me about twenty minutes. And I was never late for classes. Some of my classmates however lived nearby but they were not that punctual.

The reason was I had been taught to appreciate my time and time of others. I learned to feel it and plan it properly.

In my quest for the basic understanding of time, I have come to the conclusion that time is neither everything nor anything. Time might be totality of events as Newton has said at one point and relatively in motion as Einstein has said at other point.

After meticulous reflections I have also understood that to feel that you have not wasted your life you need to go and see the world. That will widen and enlarge your heart and mind. Only then can you feel extensiveness in this narrow living space of the society. There’s no going back. We must live in the present and we should invest time carefully as to receive the most we can in health, happiness, love and success. The clock is running, so make the most of today. As an old saying goes: today is a gift, that’s why they call it the present.

The problems of the young: low incomes, housing problems, lack of entertainments, etc.

Youth is the best time in life of a man. But at the same time youth is the most difficult time, because the most important decisions must be made. Problems of young people are among the sharpest in the world. An economic situation in many countries results in unemployment of young people. The burning issues are as well spending their free time, relations with parents and unhappy love.

Youth is the time when a person is trying to find his place in the world. And while searching he or she comes across different problems which are as sharp as those of the adults. The youth of the twenty first century face almost the same the problems which were acute to their parents when they were young. One of them is a generation gap.

Every generation is unique in its experience. It has its own ideals and a system of values concerning every aspect of human life. Adults always complain that the young are not what they were. These words are repeated from generation to generation. Undoubtedly it is true. In fact today the young are better educated. They grow up more quickly. They derive joy from more freedom. At present the young do not blindly accept the ideals of their parents. For them everything that the adults bear in mind is past history. And this is inevitable, because different generations take different directions. Moreover, the young look forward and the old people look backward. The adult always teach the young how to live. They apply old standards to the new way of life. The past is hanging over them preventing them from appreciating the things around them anew. The young think that the adults have lost touch with everything that is important in life. They are right, because what is important to the adults is the past. The young know what they want. They prefer to make their own mistakes rather than to listen to the warnings of the adults. The past exists to help the young to avoid unnecessary blurs. But they do want to have them. The young want to live their own life. They want to overcome their own difficulties without turning back. Unfortunately the life of the young is frequently determined by the adults. The young and adults have different points of view concerning everything. And it generates the conflict.

Another problem of the youth is the relationship of the young people with their friends and beloved. A person can be on good terms with his or her classmates or university groupmates but have only one or two real friends. The problem of love is very important for the young too. Today they young fall in love when they reach the age of Romeo and Juliet. Romanticism and idealism very often accompany the love of the young. Their belief in eternal love can end dramatically. Today nobody doubts about the depth of their passion. It is regrettable, but the young are not always ready to have stable relations. For a happy family life two people must understand and respect each other.

It should be said that the young have other problems as well. They are concerned with education, money, employment, hobby, spending their free time, communication, and the like. And of course one of the most urgent problems is the accommodations problem. Few young people in our country have their own apartments. In the main they share the apartments with their parents even after getting married.

The next problem that young people face is to choose their future profession. It means that they have to choose the future of their life. It's not an easy task to make the right choice of a job.

One of the urgent problems of the young is unemployment. The percentage of unemployed youth in the total number of the jobless is high. Some young people see no way out and commit suicide. From time to time some may get a hit of luck, but the majority lose their ideals and become disillusioned.

  So, as you see, it is very difficult to be young nowadays, as, indeed, it always was. But you only can be young once, are some wonderful things can happen only when you’re young. So, you are to enjoy youth while it lasts.

Outstanding People & Outstanding Abilities: Connie Talbot has been singing since she was 18 months old

Connie Talbot (born 20 November 2000) is an English child singer from Streetly, Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, West Midlands. Connie is best known as the gap toothed 6 year old who stole the nations heart when she stepped out on stage and sang solo in front of the judges of 'Britains Got Talent’. She has been singing since she was 18 months old. The song she is most known for, “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”, was the song she performed at her grandmother’s funeral at three years old.

She rose to fame in 2007 when she reached the final of the television talent show Britain's Got Talent. Talbot was supposed to sign with Sony BMG but the label pulled out of the deal due to her age.

Talbot signed with Rainbow Recording Company and released her debut album Over the Rainbow in the UK on 26 November 2007. The album was re-released 18 June 2008 with a new track listing, and the first single from the album, a cover of Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds", was released on 10 June.

Despite its negative critical reception, Over the Rainbow has sold over 250,000 copies worldwide and reached number one in three countries. Since the initial album release, Talbot has performed publicly and on television in Europe, the U.S. and across Asia, where her music had gained recognition through YouTube. Her second album, Connie Talbot's Christmas Album, was released on 24 November 2008; her third, Holiday Magic, was released in late 2009.

On top of her musical career, Talbot continues to attend primary school and lives in Streetly with her family. She lives with her mother, Sharon, her father Gavin, a self-employed property maintenance engineer, her brother Josh, and her sister, Mollie. Talbot sang "Over the Rainbow", her signature song, at her grandmother's funeral, because she and her grandmother had enjoyed watching The Wizard of Oz together. Talbot drew confidence in Britain's Got Talent from the belief that her grandmother was watching, and vowed to win the show in her memory.  Despite Talbot speaking positively of the effects of her fame, her parents spoke of a darker side, including having to change their phone number and hire a bodyguard for their daughter.