Back in Bangladesh, my friends and I learned of this concept called Super Happiness from Professor Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Laureate and founder of the Grameen Bank I talked about in my last article "Straight Outta Bangladesh". He stated simply, "Making money is happiness, however, making other people happy is Super Happiness." After hearing this simple yet powerful statement, I imagined my own keys to achieving this overwhelming feeling of Nirvana. Here are my 4 Major Keys to achieving this feeling of Super Happiness.

Major Key #1: Embrace being CUSTOM MADE.

In this world, many of us conform to what society wants us to be. Being original, being unique, being yourself is considered being crazy. Think about it. How many of us view Donald Trump, as crazy, ludicrous, or outlandish? Probably the majority of us. But to him, he's true to how he naturally feels and that is what you have to respect about him. Don't worry about the opinions, judgments, or misconceptions others may say or think about you because at the end of the day none of it matters. Only God can judge, and that's the way we should wake up every morning and go to sleep every night. As long as the person on the inside is the same person on the outside, you should never be apologetic or upset by someone disliking you. Drake said it best in his song, Views, "You don't worry 'bout fitting in when you custom made."

Major Key # 2: R-E-S-P-E-C-T

I have many friends who are Trump supporters, and who wear and tote the Confederate Flag like it's a symbol of American pride. To many, that would get an automatic unfollow on Facebook, a deleted number, and maybe never speaking to that friend again. But to me, I'm not that quick to throw them under a bus. What this does is divide us even more than we already are! Rather than flip out and block or delete people because we don't see eye to eye on a major problem, debate, argue, listen, and learn what the opposing side's argument is to why they do what makes you feel infuriated on the inside. Everyone is protected under the first Amendment to have the freedom of speech, religion, press, etc. I'm not saying to agree or like the opposition, but you should understand and respect whatever it may be.

Major Key #3: Go to a Third-World Country

Although I would like to believe I came from humble beginnings, I have had pretty much everything I could possibly need growing up, which most people from the same place I am from would call spoiled. Anyhow, after I lived in Bangladesh (one of the poorest & most populated countries in the world) for a month, my life was forever changed. Not only did I think I was spoiled rotten, but I thought Americans as a whole were too! I saw one room houses with dirt floors, men with no legs crawling across the street, children running miles with no shoes on glass and trash just to beg for money, and even lived in places with roaches crawling out of the mirrors, no A/C, and yes the biggest blow of them all, no WiFi. To me, this was a culture shock, but to them it was life. This experience of going into a country like Bangladesh opened my eyes to so many of the problems other cultures have. Americans will complain about issues protected by the constitution like religion or sexual orientation, while other countries similar to Bangladesh do not have a choice and could possibly be killed for speaking about how they feel. Once you understand the blessings you do have rather than what you desire, then you will begin to see the happiness behind the madness.

Major Key #4: Realize Fate is Real

As I was flying to Tennessee to see my family and friends for the first time since I had left for Bangladesh 6 weeks before, all that was on my mind was the terrorist attack that occurred in an area I went to all the time in Bangladesh the moment I landed in New York. I remember seeing on the news, "3 US Students killed in Gulshan hostage situation." Not undermining the other lives lost in the attack, but for the first time I understood that death was knocking at my door, and if I had been in the restaurant that night, my fellow interns from the US, France, Germany, Japan, etc. and I would be dead right now. All I could do on the plane was cry and ask myself why me? Then it donned on me that it was not my time to leave the world. I can't live in fear of a coward coming to take my life, or even accidents happening because it's beyond my control. What I can control is how I live every day, how I treat others, and if I am working as hard as I can to achieve my goals. Even at my weakest hour when I think there is no hope for me, I know in my mind that I will be fine because of the way I lived my life and handled every situation thrown at me. It is still hard to cope with the fact that as I was hugging my mother, another mother was learning that it was her daughter beaten to death by a terrorist, but that's fate. Although this is tough to accept, I know the girl, the others in that restaurant, and the others who have lost their lives in the many terrorist attacks that have stained this world would not want me to be afraid, but rather use this as fuel to go live and explore life to the fullest. Let's do just that.

These are my 4 keys to experiencing Super Happiness: Be YOU, RESPECT yourself and those around you, step out of your comfort zone and visit places less fortunate than yours, and embrace rather than fear Fate.

Stay super happy, and most importantly, stay woke my friends.