What Matters by Hannah

What Matters by Hannah - September 2015 Scholarship Essay

The sun was radiating onto my pale skin. I listened to the rush of waves from the gulf catching up to the shore. Music was playing and people were dancing like fools at a circus. The smell of incense and fried foods empowered the air around my friends and I. This was a weekend I had eagerly awaited to approach. I finally attended “The Hangout Festival” in Gulf Shore, Alabama. This festival was conveniently placed onto a beach where people with free spirited souls gathered to listen to a popular artist and/or bands perform their music. At this festival I met a special person who taught me that material objects do not determine ones inner happiness.
My group of close friends and I were squeezing our way through the large crowd of sweaty, incoherent group of 21st century hippes. We were moving towards the famous “Boom Boom Tent” where loud electronic dance music was flowing into everyone’s eardrums. The beats of the music were so powerful that the vibration of every sound projected towards someone making them feel as if their limbs were attached by strings and the music was their puppet master. No one could stand still because the energy in the tent was so intriguing that dancing was the only option. As I was dancing and acting goofy with my girls. There was a man in front of us who was fist pumping an inflatable palm tree into the air. There was no doubt that this fellow was having the time of his life. He smiled and laughed while throwing a fake palm tree into the air. I wondered how something that silly could make a person so damn happy. As if hearing my thoughts, he turned his face towards me which looked like a burnt crispy bacon strip and turned to the heavens and released a loud roar. His excitement was charismatic to say the least. I needed to know him and know how one man could get so much joy from such a simple thing. I asked who he was, where he came from and how he ended up in Gulf Shores. He chuckled to himself and said “Ma’am, you may need to take a seat.”
He then started his story. He explained to us that years ago he owned his own surfing business where he gave surfing lessons and sold surf-boards. He was very wealthy, lived in Los Angeles, California in a nice house, with a nice car, and everything else most people could ever dream of having. But deep down inside he felt a void. There was something that was wrong and it was dwelling in his soul. He soon started gambling causing his to lose a large portion of his savings. When that didn’t work, he began trying to buy happiness. Going from bar to bar picking up new women, but each one left him with the same feeling. He said that he had it. There was nothing material that could solve his utter drive for joy that he longed for. He decided he had enough of the “happy life” that the media portrays. He grabbed a backpack and gathered some food and water along with all the money he had left and set out on a new adventure leaving his business and everything else he had behind.
He had traveled the country getting rides from stranger after stranger visiting music festivals and happenings that brought many together. The hole that he had in his heart was filled with the love given to him by a complete stranger. He told me something I will never forget. “There is a reason the word ‘love’ and ‘live’ and only one letter off. They belong with each other. In order to live, you must love. Remember that until the day you die, and you will not die unhappy.” He continued with his story of traveling the country, getting bus rides, thumbing his way down south to make it to one of the largest musical festivals in the country, “Hangout”.
“So you had the balls to just get up and leave? That’s insane!” I said. His reply was simple, but truthful and somewhat comforting, “What kind of a boring world would this be if it weren’t for crazy people?” He kept explaining how no matter what I buy, no matter what clothes I wear, no matter how hard I try to impress other people with my material things, I will not be happy. He explained that true joy comes from within. It does not come from satisfaction of others, but from the complete and undiminished love of life and freedom itself.
I am realizing just how correct he was. My car, my phone, my television are not what bring me joy, but looking up into the sky on a dark night with people who I love and love me is what brings me joy. It is the beauty of this world like nature and the people who inhabit it.