are you happy?

I have had blogs on and off for years. As I go through seasons of my life, the blog did too. But because of that, I could never stick to one thing for my blog, which made content and consistency challenging. I’d be creative and get a new idea, and then 6 months later it would be completely different. But even in all of this “mess”, I knew I still wanted to write. I still wanted to share my life with the world, even if nothing ever came from it. I wanted to have memories 80 year old Sara would be happy to reflect on. 

And then it hit me. Happiness. A feeling we’re all very familiar with, and yet somehow, it's also a feeling that’s foreign. How does one become happy? How can we sustain “our happy”? What does happiness even look like?

These questions have been with me for a few years now, but only recently have I started paying attention to them. 

This past December, I started a new job and for the first time in a long time, I had a real holiday break. Almost two full weeks between Christmas and New Year’s, and I wanted to do something with it - something spontaneous to kick off the new year.

I started looking at flights and places I could drive that wouldn’t be too far away. I was looking at Canada and Mexico, going back out west to Utah or Colorado...and then I started looking at NYC. I started looking and trying to plan things out and realized this could actually work - that this would be my way of kicking off the new year, in a place where so many people come to start their dreams.

"New York City - I think I'm going to go to New York for my little new years trip", I'd said. My mom, sitting on her comfy chair looking at something on her phone, almost jolted up and asked “Can I go too?”

And so, we planned an incredibly last minute trip, days before the New Year, to NYC. We decided to drive (gross I know, but we saved a lot of money) Tuesday night, meaning we’d arrive in NYC New Years Eve, and then we’d leave on Saturday to make the drive back. And guys - what a trip it was. Even though we really only had 3 full days, we really made the most out of it - going to the AMNH, getting some amazing crullers at a cafe we stumbled upon, walking Central Park… and the coolest thing of all, being in NYC, on New Years. It was like a dream come true for my mom being there, and I'm so glad we took the leap and made it happen. 

Now, you’re probably thinking, “Cool Sara, NYC and New Years and all that jazz, but what does this have to do with happiness?”.

Well - hang on, I’m getting there. 

It was officially 2026, and I felt that familiar want - wanting this new year to be different, wanting to grow, and wanting to live more intentionally. We were walking around NYC, and  we stumbled into Barnes and Noble.

There was a book that kept catching my eye, I must have seen it multiple times while walking around. It’s called “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin. I finally picked it up and began reading, and was taken aback by how much I related to what she was going through: being critical and getting consumed by my emotions, being angry and arguing with those I love, not appreciating moments like I should have - and so many more. 

I knew I wanted 2026 to be different. But I didn’t want to be someone new - I just wanted to go back to the “free spirited” version of myself, where I felt more in control of myself and less insecure. Where I wasn’t as critical as I have become. Where I was making myself happy, and not being dependent on getting that from other people. 

In reality, that “version” of myself  never left… she was always there. 

I just needed to let her breathe. 

And so, I bought the book. And as I’ve been reading this book, Rubin has inspired me, not to “grab life by the horns and take back control”, but to embrace and appreciate the moments throughout the day, to be less critical and give more grace, to be more loving than angry, and to slow down in a world that constantly wants to move fast. 

Although I don’t know where this venture will take me, nor do I have any idea of what it will look like - there is some beauty to the mystery. And the only thing I really want to come from it, aside from the obvious happiness aspect, is connection. 

To this world.

To strangers.

To my family.

To my friends.

And to me.