An Inconvenient Truth: All good things must come to an end

As spring break has come to a close, it's rather depressing to accept the end of a wonderful break and the dreaded return to school. So as school starts tomorrow and my euphoria dissolves, it has inspired a deeper thought that all good things must come to an end.

Yes, it may seem obvious that goodness can't last forever, but don't we hold the reins to our own lives? Can't we just live so that we only experience happiness? Although it may not be impossible, on a biological level I do know that the human brain experiences a variety of hormone-induced emotions that are functions of daily activity. Now, some of these emotions can be learned, like guilt or shame; so can someone be ignorant of these emotions and live in a world of happiness?

On a philosophical level, epicureans live their lives to experience the most pleasure possible. However, sometimes an epicurean will sacrifice feeling immediate pleasure for experiencing long-term pleasure. In Sophie's World, Gaarder uses the example of a sum of money. One could easily spend that newly-earned money on a chocolate bar and feel immediate pleasure or one could wait, save the money, and use the savings to buy a brand new bike for a long-term sense of pleasure. This concept was called the "pleasure calculator."

So, even though an epicurean lives to be satisfied, he or she still makes sacrifices to achieve the utmost satisfaction. So can someone be truly happy all the time? I think not, for all good things must come to an end.