Happy in Volda
Valentin Gatlan, a journalist student from "Al. I. Cuza" University in Romania enjoys his second semester as an exchange student in Volda. So much so, he decided to initiate a project about happiness. "What makes you happy?" is intended to raise awareness about the small things in life, which make a difference and bring a smile on our faces.
Poster for the campaign
About the entire project, Valentin says:
- Sometimes we forgot about the simplicity of things. No one to blame. Is the normal way of nowadays’ life. Many would speak about the „Century of speed”. With all the new technologies which we cannot live without, we forgot about the simple situations, people, gestures, or different moments that make us smile at least for some seconds. Seconds which counts, even though we do not realise for the moment.
„What makes you happy” campaign is meant to show this reality and to invite to mediation.
I worked with a group of 21 one people from Lithuania, Norway, Latvia, Belarus, Cuba, Spain, Germany, Ukraine, Bulgaria, China. All great, all with splendid ideas. Each of them took 10 minutes of their time and thought about the things that make them happy. „It is hard. It really is. I never thought about that before”, they said.
Yes, it is. Why? We are not used to think about the small details that make our existence worth living.
And yes: Simple things put a smile on our faces. We just make them complicated.
How about you? What makes YOU happy?
