Many times we want to be like other people. We like the way they socialize, the way they behave. There was a time when I myself imitated some classmates because I wanted to be as nice as them, since I was very shy and not funny at all.

So I tried to be like other people. Little by little I took a little bit from here and a little bit from there and so I was able to define my best way of being in order to please others. Later on I would learn that we don't have to please others, we have to please ourselves instead.

To have peace in life we need to be at peace with ourselves. We need to feel good about ourselves. If we are not, if we do not feel in harmony with our self, then we will not have inner peace.

We live in community. Even if we say that we feel good being cooped up in our house, more specifically cooped up in our room and occupying ourselves with our computer or laptop.

We like living in our privacy, even though we share with the community, because we were not born to be alone. We were born to share, to be with other people in a community or place.

We know that since ancient times people have always come together in groups, like herds, because we feel safe and supported when we are in a group.

I have many groups I belong to, groups formed to solve community problems, groups to participate in an event, groups of colleagues to greet or participate in matters important to all, prayer groups, condominium groups, groups to go to the gas station as it happens in my country… and so there are many types of groups.

The best way to function is when we share ideas in groups. In our family when we are small they don't take our opinion to do household chores but as we grow up and become adults then we are asked for our opinion when important decisions are made. This happens in most family groups, because everything has its exceptions.

But the fact that we have so many groups that we belong to in order to solve the problems we have in a community does not mean that we are people who always want to be in groups.

I like my solitude. I nourish myself in it. I read, I participate, I write, I give my opinion from here from the pleasant comfort of home.

 I have met many people in my life who only think about going out. When they are at home they walk from one place to another thinking about what other things they have to do outside their home, but I’m the opposite; I think a lot when I am on the street about the time when I return to the tranquility of my home.

I knew a person who woke up at 4:30 in the morning every day and got her children ready for school. She would get everything ready for lunch and she would leave for work. Then she would come home and after her lunch she would go back out to take her kids to some homework like music class, dance class and so on, and then she would come back at night to make dinner for the family. To then get ready for the next morning and do the same.

I would watch all that while I was typing on my computer and then spend the whole day busy at home. Sometimes I would go out shopping or pay for some things at the office, but always looking forward to coming home.

This is the personality I developed. I like the quietness of my home although I have many groups where I share tasks and opinions, apart from the platforms where I write. Of course, all this when the internet allows me to do so, because my internet is definitely not what it used to be and now it suddenly goes away and God knows with what excuses the public servants tell us why it happens.

What I want to say with all this that I have written so far is that we are people to live in groups in a community. That we develop different types of personalities in the course of our lives, that although we adopt forms of behavior that seem to us to be related to our behavior in the end we stay with the personal characteristics that we like the most.

We should live as we want, doing what we like, dressing as we feel better, not because of fashion or as others dress. Fashions are for a group of people, not for everyone. We should live to feel happy with what we do.

Even if we live in a community we must find a way to live in perfect balance with our environment. Look for the job that makes us happy and the people with whom we like to share to nourish ourselves with them and that they feel the same way about us.

I remember that I once heard from someone that if a person lives to the age of 70, he or she sleeps approximately 8 hours a day, which means that he or she sleeps 30 years of those 70 years. Then he said that it is a waste of time if we do not have a good mattress to sleep those 30 years.

Then he said that we also work 6 to 8 hours a day, which implies 30 to 40 years of work and if this work is not to our liking we will have lost those 40 years of bitter 8 hours. That is why the best thing is to do a job that we enjoy, so these 40 years will be a memory of the pleasure we feel when we work.

 I want to say that I'm a happy person if that's what it comes down to. I have the pleasures of my life which are my job, my plants and my writing. I have my closest friends and my family of God. This is why I am happy every day of the world.

I have my life friends with me all the time, not in presence for now. I have my home, with my son, my pets and my beautiful plants that I occasionally share around here.

In my years, I think it is now that I am spending more hours of my life being happy than with problems that have no solution.

All the time we will have problems, obstacles, roadblocks and impediments to getting a task done in the quickest way, but it's up to us how we look at the obstacles.  If you take it calmly with the wisdom that everything has its solution in time or if you decide on the contrary to be angry and throwing tantrums because of the mishap you are having.

It's all in your mind, be happy, don't destroy yourself with unmeasured anger and tantrums of long hours that lead to nothing.

Everything in life costs a little effort and being happy costs you a lot. Because you will only get it when you realize that it’s within you and in the circumstances that surround you.

Look for your happiness. A good mattress and a good job, because everything depends on what is inside you.

I'm @gertu from Venezuela.