The Key to “Eudaimonia”

For instance, there are many people who decide not to attend college or take a year off and travel as an alternative.  These people may not be participating in academic activity but they still have the opportunity to learn.  Oftentimes, people who go this route embark on adventure and really get to explore the world around them.  They trade the teachings of mathematics and sciences for the involvement in communities or even time to truly soul search.  Instead of classroom experience, they gain life experience by trying new things and just being out and about in the real world.  With this being said, the argument can be made that someone can be just as happy, if not happier, without an extensive academic background.

This point of view is surely not meant to discredit the academically gifted and certainly not those who currently attend any sort of academic institution.  The goal is rather to shine light on the fact that virtuosity and happiness cannot rely more heavily on academic ability because not everyone in the world is guaranteed to be academically successful.  Everyone is wired differently and some people take more towards arts or other involvements outside of academics such as music, dance, crafts, etc.  If these skills are matched with good moral character then these people could be destined to be much happier than those who spends countless years in undergraduate and graduate school only to realize that they spent so much time trying to obtain a degree that they cannot utilize once they graduate.

Once again, the point of this post is not to condemn academics in any matter.  Instead, it is meant to serve as an example of an alternative means of achieving eudaimonia.  It is possible for anyone to achieve it, whether scholarly adequate or borderline illiterate.  The key to happiness relies on how content the person is with themselves and their surroundings, not just how much they know academically.