By DMA Senior Anthony Pala

At first, I thought Optimistic Mindset would just be an elective that I wouldn’t get much out of, but after the first few days, I really saw the value of this class. This class teaches you how to be happy. I was mostly focused on things in my future like graduating from college and how much money I am going to make, but I learned that being happy can affect all of that. It turns out that people who are happier tend to have higher salaries than those who are depressed. For me, that was life-changing as it completely changed my priorities. My first priority should be making myself happy because that will help me accomplish my other goals.

I never really knew how to make myself happy. I’ve always thought just staying at home by myself and playing video games would make me happy, but it doesn’t. This class taught me about how things you think can make you happy actually don’t. I think the biggest example is more money. I’ve always heard the term, money can’t buy happiness, but there is actual proof from many different scientific studies that shows that money doesn’t affect happiness much at all. The things we wish for don’t actually affect how happy we are, but we still want them all the time that can negatively affect our happiness-going on social media for example. 

It’s scientifically proven that social media negatively affects our mental health and happiness because we have a reference point of these “influencers.” We want what they have, and most people know that it negatively affects us, but we still use it every day. I’ve cut down on social media more due to this class, and have lowered my screen time overall. Science has shown that getting myself out of the house more and interacting with other people should make you happier, and it did for me. This class has inspired me to follow these lessons in my everyday life. No other class has really done for me before. I appreciate that life transformation more than anything.