My Plans for the Future

When it came time to begin making plans for a life experiment, I already had some ideas as to what parts it would consist of. I've always enjoyed helping people and I wanted my life experiment to contain this aspect. However, I also wanted my experiment to contain aspects of improving the environment. What could be done daily that would enrich my life with happiness by doing good deeds? Since I already do some things that help people, I leaned a little more towards experiments that help the environment. The experiment consisted of doing five things over five days that could help the environment and people, while enrich my level of happiness. My overall hypothesis for this experiment is the following: by performing acts of kindness towards the environment and people I will be able to enrich the happiness I have in my life. A phenomenon I'm predicting is as I do each act of kindness I will be able to feel my happiness enriching. The experiment will be made of the following five parts: two actions that help the environment, two that help people, and one that does both.

On the first day of performing my life happiness experiment, I wanted to do something that would help the environment. After some thinking, I decided to conserve natural resources such as water and electricity. After knowing what action I would be performing for this part, I formulated the following hypothesis for this particular action: by conserving natural resources I would be able to enrich my happiness by knowing I helped the environment. For this part of my experiment I did not predict a phenomena. I began by checking my residence for any electronics that were not being used, but plugged in or running. Once I identified electronics that fit into the categories above, I unplugged or turned them off. I also reduced my use of water by not running the sink while brushing my teeth and only washing my hands when necessary. This action was performed throughout day. At the end of the day I felt a level of happiness that I don't often feel. It was happiness that came from conserving natural resources and knowing what I did helped the environment. This confirms the following hypothesis which I formulated for this action: by conserving natural resources I would be able to enrich my happiness by knowing I helped the environment. This also gives me supporting evidence for my overall hypothesis and phenomenon.

On the second day of performing my life happiness experiment, I decided to to do something that again would help the environment. So I did recycling. The hypothesis I'll be using for this one will be: by recycling plastic, cardboard, and tin I'll be able to increase my happiness because I know I'm helping the earth stay clean. A phenomenon I'm expecting as a result of my experiment is less items will go to a landfill and instead be reused. To begin this action, I rounded up any plastic bottles that were lying around my residence and placed them in a bucket. I then did the same with cardboard and tin. After rounding up the plastic, cardboard, and tin, I searched for any thing that might be discarded in the future. Cereal boxes and a plastic container that was used to hold grapes was found. I then took the grapes and put them in a bowl and later took the cereal out of the boxes. After I had all the items I could find for recycling, I loaded them up and took them to the recycling center with my mom. The drive through the rather chilly desert to the facility was desolate.

A sea of sagebrush surrounded the family automobile as we journeyed with the recyclable cargo. When we arrived at our destination, we began looking for a place to park. Once we found a place to park, I unloaded my recycling into the designated steel bins. The bins are placed in the middle of a black top pad. Each bin is separated from the other enough to drive a vehicle beside it to make unloading easier. After I dumped the buckets of recycling into their designated bins, we got back into the vehicle and began the long drive back. On the way back I felt a feeling of happiness and relief that the materials we left at the recycling center would be reused instead of going to a landfill and companies won't have to make new plastic. Mr. Rajendran (an Indian politician) says, ""The increased consumption of plastics in day to day life has a significant impact on the Environment"" (Rajendran). By just recycling a few materials that are useless to me, I can help keep the environment safe and increase my happiness.This proves my hypothesis for this experiment and gives me supporting evidence for my overall hypothesis. My predicted phenomenon is proven through the quote above. On the other hand my overall phenomenon prediction isn't proven through this action. The reason is, I didn't feel an extra sense of happiness until I was back in the vehicle. In order for my phenomenon to be proven in an action I have to feel it increasing throughout the action.

On the third day of performing my life experiment, I wanted to do something that helped someone. So I decided to do the dishes for my mom. My hypothesis for this experiment is similar to the hypothesis of the second experiment and is as follows: by helping my mom with the dishes I can raise my happiness by knowing that she didn't have to do them. A phenomenon I'm predicting as a result of me doing the dishes is the sink will be clean ahead of schedule. I began my action by emptying the dishwasher and putting the many types of kitchenware in their proper place. Once the kitchenware was successfully put away I felt a sense of happiness, but I wasn't done yet. I continued my action by washing and scrubbing the dishes in our stainless steel sink. As I washed the kitchenware and placed it in the dishwasher, I could feel my happiness increasing with every dish. Once I had finished washing and scrubbing all the dishes, the sinks stainless steel base shined beautifully. The happiness I had received from doing it came from two parts. The first part came from doing the scrubbing and knowing that every piece I scrubbed put me one step closer to completing the job. The second part came from being done and knowing that I had done something for someone else. The happiness from the second part was also accompanied by a sense of relief. My hypothesis for this part of my life experiment was proven because I had received happiness from doing the dishes and knowing that my mom didn't have to do them. The results from this part of my life experiment also gives me supporting evidence for my overall hypothesis. The phenomenon I had predicted was also proven. Since, I did the dishes before my mom could get to them, they were done ahead of schedule. The results from this part of my life experiment also give me supporting evidence for my overall phenomenon that I'm predicting.

On the fourth day of my life experiment, I was a bit puzzled. I was unsure what to do for it. I wanted to do something that would help someone, but I couldn't decide what. After pondering what I could do, I decided to clean off the bean trellis for my parents. Every year for the past five years we've had beans in our outside garden and must clean the old vines off in the fall. Usually this is one of my parents chorus, but I decided to do it this time. My hypothesis for this part of my life experiment will be the following: my happiness will increase when I clean the bean trellis because I'm helping my parents. A phenomenon I'm predicting is my parents will be happier because one of them won't have to clean the bean trellis. The bean trellis is a straight piece of elevated pipe that has wire coming down it for the the beans to climb up. To begin I first put my gloves on and grabbed a big bunch of leaves that were growing on the vines and put them into my barrel. I continued down the line pulling off most of the leaves. After most of the leaves were removed, I got my plant clippers and began clipping the vines off. As I did this the rusted steel wire would show and it made me happy to see that I was making progress. When I finished cleaning the trellis, I gazed upon the work I had done and it made me happy to think that I saved my parents the trouble. In this part of my life experiment my hypothesis was proved. I gained happiness by cleaning the bean poles for my parents. My phenomenon was never proved though. I believe this is because when I went out to do clean them I didn't wear a jacket and both my parents got worried I'd get sick. On the other hand, the results from this life experiment both help to prove my overall hypothesis and phenomenon.

On the fifth day of my life experiment, I decided to perform a hybrid experiment where I help both the environment and someone. So I helped my dad rake leaves at a customers house. My dad has been doing gardening for the past 50 years, and started his own business nearly two decades ago. The hypothesis I have formulated for this part of my life experiment is the following: by helping my dad rake our neighbors yard I can gain happiness from helping someone and the environment. The phenomenon I'm predicting for this part of my life experiment is when the leaves are all raked up the grass will be able to breath better. The customer's house is just down the road so we went down on a Saturday afternoon and raked them. Once we rake the leaves into a pile, we put them in barrels and dump them into my dad's trailer. Every time I dumped a barrel full of leaves I felt happy. I'm not sure where this happiness came from, but I guess it had something to do with the accomplishment of collecting a full barrel of leaves. When we were done raking the leaves, the yard looked wonderful. It was like a twister came through there and picked all the leaves up (this twister was actually two rakes, a leaf blower, and a two men.) It made my insides feel happy that I was able to help my dad clean up the yard and help the environment at the same time. Angela Hicks (a writer for Times Union) says, ""leaves left to pile up can form a heavy mass that can kill or damage grass"" (Hickes). She also goes onto say, ""Matted leaves block sunlight and reduce water evaporation, which can cause fungus, mold and disease"" (Hickes). The results from this experiment confirm my hypothesis. I was able to gain happiness from helping my dad rake leaves and by helping the environment. The results prove my hypothesis for this part of my life experiment because I gained happiness from helping someone and the environment. My phenomenon is also proved through the quotes above. My overall hypothesis and phenomenon was also proved.

When I was done performing my life experiment of enriching my life with happiness, I took the results from each part to see how many supported my overall hypothesis and phenomenon predictions. My overall hypothesis for all five parts of the experiment was proven as well as the other hypotheses I formed for each individual part. The overall phenomenon I was predicting was only proven by four of the five parts of my life experiment. As for the phenomenons I predicted for each individual part of the experiment, only two out of four where proven and both were proven by outside sources. The results collected above tell me that I will always receive happiness from helping someone and the environment and that the happiness will in most instances come as I perform the action.

In closing, my life happiness experiment was a success. It showed me that happiness doesn't always come right away when helping. If I'm helping with something that I don't want to necessarily help with, I can find a way that the Lord has blessed me or someone else through doing it. I can now look for the positive and emotional benefits of happiness in both the little and big things I do. When I conserved natural resources, I gained happiness from knowing I helped the environment. By recycling, I gained happiness with just the thought that my unwanted materials will be reused instead of wasted. When I did the dishes for my mom, I received happiness from knowing she wouldn't have to do them. By cleaning the bean trellis, I got happiness from the thought of my parents not having to do the choir. Lastly by helping my dad rake leaves at our neighbors house, I was able to receive happiness from being able to help someone and the environment at the same time. Each experiment helped to improve my attitude toward receiving happiness and the end results gave me a statistical analysis, but I always will have room for improvement. As Kevin Bastian (director of the Teacher Quality Research Initiative) says, ""Performance assessments represent a rich and promising source of data for improvement efforts"" (Bastian). Over all I learned that my happiness can be enriched through helping others and the environment.

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