A few days before moving out, I was watching some TED talks about happiness. One of them was What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness, a research conducted by Harvard University. It has been going on for 75 years! I’m not going to describe the research completely so you can watch it for yourself here, but among all the people they studied, at the end of their lives, what brought happiness to them was the meaningful relationships they had. Not money, not career success, not their personal belongings, but the relationships they had with their friends and family.

Why am I speaking about this? Because sometimes we focus so much on university or work that we stop nurturing the relationships we have with the people around us. Believe me, at the end of the day, relationships are the one thing that will get us through. I moved overseas, and what was the thing that kept me from going momentarily insane? Connecting with my friends and family. Distance is nothing. Distance can be a mile or 1,000 miles. It’s a matter of perception. My family and friends from back home, friends I had here, even acquaintances made a difference in my emotional health. 

Never take a relationship for granted. No title (“friend”, “uncle”, “cousin” just to name examples) is going to stand the test of time if you don’t cultivate a relationship. Not just be grateful for the meaningful relationships in your life, make keeping them and nurturing them a priority. You will see that at the end of it all, those are what have brought happiness to your life. 

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Have you read about the study or watched the TED talk? What do you think of it? Leave a comment below or tweet me at @ krystel_k. I want to hear your thoughts!