Success is Happiness by Lauren

Success is Happiness by Lauren - February 2021 Scholarship Essay

Success is happiness, and as Mahatma Gandhi would say, “happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” When I enter college, it is extremely important that I develop not only academically, but also spiritually and mentally, so that I can be happy and successful in the future.

Recently in my psychology class, I took the famous Myers-Briggs Personality Test that tells you your personality type in the form of 4 letters. Each letter of the result has 2 options available, creating 16 possible personality types. My result came back as an INFJ, which is the rarest of the personality types with an estimated 1-3% of people having it. The “I” stands for introverted, the “N” is for intuitive,” the “F” signifies feeling, and the “J” means judging (which really means that you like order and control). In summary, as an INFJ, I am a person that keeps their feelings inside, knows how others are feeling instinctively, cares how others are feeling, and wants to control how others are feeling to make them better. Sometimes I have thought of the INFJ personality type as a “curse” because you have strong opinions of others and deeply want to help them, but you can’t express your feelings as an introvert, and you can’t make others change unless they want to. So basically, I live my life as a walking, breathing controversy. I think that this is why I am not truly happy because what I think, say, and do are not in line. This is something that I hope to change in college.

I think that college will offer me much more opportunities to reach my goal simply because there are more people with more varied backgrounds. I am a firm believer in the fact that “just when you think you know something, you have to look at it in another way, even though it may seem silly or wrong.” This quote from the movie Dead Poet Society makes a great deal of logical sense; how can a person be an expert on something if they are not always considering new perspectives? I think that new wisdom from people of all different backgrounds will encourage me to come out of my shell more and voice my opinions so that they don’t just live within the confines of my mind. Additionally, I think that being away from my family and becoming more independent will make me more comfortable with speaking my mind.

Another aspect of college that will help me reach my goal is the many opportunities to get involved with causes I believe in. I have very strong opinions about current issues, but I often feel too scared to share my thoughts or I don’t know how to make a difference. However, if there was a designated college club where I could take action with other like-minded individuals, it would be a lot easier for me to act. The college that I am planning to go to, Saint Louis University, is a Jesuit school with an emphasis on service activities. At this school, I would be able to further act out the moral tenants I believe in with much more service opportunities than I ever could have had in high school.

Obviously, good grades and finishing my degree in a timely manner are extremely important facets of how successful I view myself in college, but it is even more important for me to be balanced in what I think, say, and do. I feel that this spiritual balance coupled with academic success will make me an unstoppable, happy young woman in the future. And hopefully then I will be able to enact the positive aspects of my personality, like my ability to be insightful, organized, and extremely compassionate, so that I can turn my INFJ “curse” into a blessing.