<p>Here goes my first try at the essay…</p>
<p>Does fame bring happiness, or are people who are not famous more likely to be happy?</p>
<p>“For the world is not painted, or adorned, but is from the beginning beautiful,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson, a philosopher at the forefront of Transcendentalist thinking. In all parts of the modern world, society runs and thrives on what is paraded, what is bought and sold. Those blessed with fame are well off in the material department, and constantly attended to. Fame itself is treated as a physical object in its modern context. Happiness, though, is a feeling–independent of the physical object.</p>
<p>Tween dreams today often consist of gleaming cars, stacks of cash, sycophants following one’s every move. Numerous studies in the UK and the US show that a third of Generation Y would rather spend their lives as celebrities than scientists; possessions and glitz are becoming favorable to the pursuit of knowledge. At the same time, these aspirations are taking hold of their lives, leading to increased rates of suicide and depression.</p>
<p>Do the admired celebrities with “all that” truly lead lives in high spirits? In the case of Britney Spears, most would say not. At the height of her career she was a household name and a Halloween costume. Now she is the crazy bald girl, washed out by the tide of entertainment that has since brought new acts to the stage. When questioned by paparazzi, “Why?” she replied, “Because of you.”</p>
<p>Many of those in the less fortunate positions of our modern-day caste system still find it in themselves to enjoy life. In “Little Princes,” a true story profiling a country only recently recovering from civil war, sat an orphanage dedicated to safeguarding trafficked children. These children were bought, sold, separated from families, and conditioned to believe they were orphans. However, even in the face of such adversity would they marvel at the bubbles made by an extra serving of shampoo or go into hysterics how a volunteer at their home would butcher a foreign word. The very simple things in life are free from worry and very inclined toward happiness.</p>
<p>Fame is much desired and not necessarily enjoyed. It comes from oversaturation of the delicacies that surround us, and is often transient. Though every one of us desires happiness, few of us realize that it comes so much more easily through the immaterial.</p>
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This forum is really a masterpiece. It’s pretty hilarious that you can get so much for BSing even on something like the SAT… but hey, if it sounds stupid and it works, it’s not stupid.</p>