Arian was brushing his teeth when all of a sudden, he stopped. There was a bar above his head, which spelled "Happiness". Arian dropped his toothbrush in panic. He started waving his hand around over his head to touch the bar, but it appeared to be something virtual. Tom, his older brother, came rushing in: "Are you okay? Is everything alright?"
Arian stared at his brother, unable to utter a single word. With all his strength and courage, he asked, "Can you see something above my head?"
"Um, no? What do you mean something ‘above' your head?
"Nothing. I am sorry; I will get ready now"
As soon as Tom left, Arian stared at the bar in the mirror. It was very low, almost zero. "Is this rea?!", he asked himself as he bent to pick up the toothbrush.
At school, Arian could barely focus. He spent his break trying to figure out if the bar was real. He did so by doing things that he thought made him happy- playing with his friends, and having his favorite dessert at lunch-but the bar moved very slowly and very little. He was surprised. All his life, this is the happiness he had known. This is what he had termed happiness to be. Confused, he sat down at the steps of his recess hall and started munching on his cereal bar. He was halfway through when a bird came and sat next to him. He was surprised, as birds rarely flew at school because children would throw rocks at them. The bird seemed to stare at his bar. Arian was not a boy who loved sharing, similar to all children his age. This was his favorite bar. But the bird kept staring. Defeated, Arian tore a piece of his bar and placed it at a distance near the bird. The bird, hesitant at first, came straight to the bar and started eating. Arian chuckled and stood up, finished his bar, and headed towards the bin when he glimpsed his reflection in the recess entrance door. He could see his bar increase much faster and more than last. "Wow! How did that happen?!". Shocked, he ran to the bathroom to have a quick look in the mirror to see if he was seeing things right. "Wow, that's amazing!"
All his life, he had known happiness to come from things you loved to do. He never knew that you could be happy by helping others. There is no definition for this feeling. There are no criteria. Happiness comes from within, when you feed your curiosity, when you help others, when you give even though you don't want to. Happiness is a variable you cannot measure or define.
He kept thinking about this when the bar started disappearing slowly. He tried to get hold of it but could not.
"Arian, wake up, wake up! Are you okay? His brother Tom was staring at him anxiously. "You were waving your hands in the air as if to grasp something: did you have a bad dream?"
Arian ran to the bedroom mirror and stared above his head. There was nothing there. "Yes, everything is okay. "
"Happiness, what a wonderful variable", he thought.