WHAT IS HAPPINESS FOR YOU?
JASMINE CURTIS-SMITH, ACTRESS
"My two adorable bochog pugs make me happy. They want all the love I want to give so it's always a win-win situation."
JOSE JAVIER REYES, DIRECTOR AND CHAIRMAN OF THE DIGITAL PROGRAM AT DE LA SALLECOLLEGE OF ST. BENILDE
"As you journey through the years, your personal happiness becomes simplified. Spoiler Alert: It is not what you thought it was when you were younger, eager, and aspiring. Fame, fortune and all these peripherals mean nothing in the end as there is great truth in the saying that what you cannot take with you makes no sense in obsessing about. So what is happiness for me: Fulfillment. Knowing that I am of use to the world and that I can feel for others as much as they give so much of themselves to me. It is not any single individual but people whose happiness defines yours as well. Right now, my happiness has got nothing to do with movies. It is seeing how my students grow and promise to be part of a much better generation where mine failed. Happiness is knowing you have, in one way or another, positively affected the lives of many."
RAYMUND ISAAC, PHOTOGRAPHER
"Happiness is a good balance between work and pleasure, heartache and love, achievement and failure. One must feel all of these to know what happiness is. But to me especially, I am most happy when some stranger comes up to me and says thank you for making his life better because I inspired him."
GABE MERCADO, PERFORMER
"Happiness is the breathless anticipation of eating the taba at the end of the pork barbecue."
BAM AQUINO, SENATOR
"I learned this about happiness from a neuro-scientist who at the World Economic Forum years ago. She revealed that our brains experience the most happiness when we exhibit kindness and compassion to one another. Not money, achievement or romance, but kindness and compassion. My takeaway — we all have the capacity to be happy, bar none."
IGE RAMOS, FOOD WRITER AND BOOK DESIGNER
"What makes me happy? Discovering new fonts, cookbooks, recipes, and ingredients. Reading a good book, eating a new dish, and using a new font. I'm also happy when I travel with my partner Kevin and when we eat leisurely together because I'm always on the run."