Good news, you won’t be happy.
I used to be a hedonist. I would chase the highs of life by partying, drinking, and traveling because being bored might as well be death. I understand now that those happy moments never last, it only left me hungrier for the next rush of dopamine. I think most of us are hedonists though, it’s in our nature to chase happiness and to reject anything less. But we fail to realize that a.) No amount of external goods* will lead to long term happiness and b.) There is no long term happiness.
“There is an initial spike in happiness or sadness, but as time goes on, the feeling of happiness or sadness caused by an event starts to dissipate, and habituation kicks in”
We return to our normal state of dissatisfaction even after we have gained the greatest, happiest moment. It’s no doubt that the fickle nature of college makes me seek out long term things. I am always daydreaming about when, in the future, I will get a stable home, when I will get a stable job and career, or even when I will reach mental stability. So of course, I am striving for that stable happy state of being. Even though our brains are literally incapable of reaching everlasting happiness, this isn’t all bad news. This knowledge relieves of us the pain of dissatisfaction in life — It’s normal for humans to be at their baseline level of happiness… or unhappiness. This much, is stable. Furthermore, I think that this constant state of wanting drives us to actively seek out a more fulfilling future with our hedonistic desire acting as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. While the gold may not actually exist, we travel great lengths, both literally and figuratively, trying to discover it. Along the way, we will have moments of happiness followed by moments of despair, but the real gold lies in finding constant meaning in life, and all the while living with the occasional joy.
*external goods are referred to as material possessions, power, prestige, and relationships
An afterthought: Happiness is not a meaningful life. A meaningful life creates happiness.
