What do people live for? Obviously, the answer varies from person to person. But overwhelmingly, the human populace's goal in life can be summed up in an often-used, but also often-misunderstood word: Happiness. Perhaps a more difficult question is: What makes people happy? Again, this depends on the person. But again, the answer can generally be summed up: To have things. People are happy when they have stuff. A nice house, a nice car, a nice family, nice food, a lot of money. These are things which people believe would make themselves happy. Are they right? Think of rich people. Think of the people who you can think of who have a lot of material things. Do their things seem to make them happy? Indeed, on the surface, they may. A person tends to feel pleased when they have many things. But it seems like this is a temporary joy; After a while, the novelty of anything wears off. To have a fancy sports car is exhilerating at first. Once you've driven it for a few weeks, though, it seems mundane. It's a nice car, but does it really satisfy the human soul? By extension, is even "happiness" itself really satisfactory? Usually what the human race associates with happiness is not. What is happiness itself? Truly, it is a feeling. A sense, nothing more. And like any other feeling, it is prone to change. Happiness comes and goes, changing like the weather, unpredictable, uncontrollable. A mere feeling can never really give the human what it desires. To be sure, feelings are nice and beautiful, but to make them the focal point of life is basing life on something which can never be attained. Once you've had something to make you happy, you need even more of the same to keep you happy. Eventually, like any other addiction, the tower must keep growing taller and taller to sustain itself. It may reach ridiculous proportions, but sooner or later, it must fall. What really brings satisfaction? It's hard to say, and again, it will be different for different people. As a general rule of thumb, however, it's my belief that "satisfaction" is a more appropriate goal for life than "happiness". Happiness, besides being difficult to achieve and impossible to sustain, is wasteful and selfish. But satisfaction can be productive and extroverted, while at the same time producing a more lasting feeling of peace and joy in a person. So what can bring satisfaction? Making the world a better place. Helping others. To know that you have made someone's burden lighter, to know that you have corrected something which was wrong, to know that your life has made the lives of everyone around you a little easier or more pleasant; This is to have lived. This is the path of true satisfaction, a happiness which is more than just a feeling, but a knowledge that your life has been lived to the fullest.