Young Writers Project is a creative, online community of teen writers and visual artists that started in Burlington in 2006. Each week, VTDigger publishes the writing and art of young Vermonters who post their work on youngwritersproject.org, a free, interactive website for youth, ages 13-19. To find out more, please go to youngwritersproject.org or contact Executive Director Susan Reid at sreid@youngwritersproject.org; (802) 324-9538.
All told, the euphoric milestones of our lives — the graduations, wedding days, childbirths, home purchases —comprise only a handful of the days we spend on this Earth. It’s better, when you can, to look out for tasting notes of joy in your morning joe or in your cat’s squeak hello when you enter the room. And sometimes, as this week’s featured poet, Nya Perry of Thetford Center, has noticed, it’s even best to shrug at happiness altogether and let it find you on its own.
Where I find my happiness
By Nya Perry, 15, of Thetford Center
Sometimes I think my joy is spread across the world.
It’s hidden in tiny cracks and crevices.
It’s behind waterfalls and in rays of sun seeping through curtains.
I don’t think I’ll ever find it all, but that’s okay.
I tend to search for happiness in big things.
I look for it in trophies and approval.
But my happiness is tricky and likes to hide where I least expect to find it.
I find it anyway.
I find my happiness in little things.
I find it in rainbows, in constellations, in warm, friendly smiles.
I find my happiness in hot chocolate, ocean waves, and the sunrise.
And when I’m tired from a long search for joy and I start to give up,
happiness comes to me, in a hug or a word of reassurance or just a friendly hello.
But lately I’ve made a strange discovery.
I tend to find the most joy when I forget to look —
when I don’t try to search anymore.
Maybe that’s just when I’m truly happy.