The following is a Letter to the Editor for the Opinions section. 

Growing up in the U.S., society tells us that success is how much money you can make. Money does not define happiness or success. The most successful people are those who are living their life the way they want. They do not take monetary gains into their decision-making. They just do what they want to do and chase their dreams no matter what.

Ask yourself why you are going to school and why you decided on your major. Business is the most popular major in the U.S., and there are over 100,000 more degrees awarded for business than the second most popular major, nursing. From personal experience, I decided to go to school and get a business degree because my parents instilled in me that making money was more important than following my passions. 

I first decided to go to Bentley University in Boston. I chose this school because it is a fantastic school for finance and accounting, and it makes it much easier to find a job after college. I thought that to be successful was to make a lot of money after I graduated college, and I wanted to be successful. I quickly realized how much I disliked my finance and accounting classes, and how much I would be unhappy if that was my job every day. 

I do realize the necessity of money, but why should we put all of our importance on how much money we can save? 

I saw an Instagram reel recently where two individuals were talking about happiness and one of them said the happiest people he had ever seen were the indigenous people of Indonesia. He said that they were the happiest because they had the mindset of “let’s go sit on the beach now.” I want to sit on the beach now. I want to enjoy my life and do what I want now. I do not want to wait until I have “enough” money to enjoy my life. 

In America, we think that we have to make a high amount of money so that we can then sit on the beach when we are 60 years old. Why do we have to wait until we retire from our 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. jobs to then truly be able to enjoy life? 

I am not saying to drop out of school and have no aspirations to make any money, but I am saying to reevaluate what you are doing, and why you are doing it. I transferred to DU to pursue a degree in marketing, with which I will be able to use my creativity in business. I am also pursuing a job in the action sports field, a field that I am extremely passionate about and involved in. There are ways to combine your passions with traditional ways to make money. 

At the bare minimum, I hope that after reading this you take a step back and ask yourself why you are on the path that you are on. If you continue on this path will you truly be happy in the end, and are you following your passions and dreams? I may have a skewed view because I come from a well-off family and never had any money struggles, but happiness is the true key to success. I will not trade my happiness for any amount of money I could make.