In one of my classes in college, we were assigned to look at a website called 7 Billion Others. This is a project where there are thousands upon thousands of people who were interviewed about their lives from around the world. They would answer questions about their dreams, fears, ordeals, hopes and more. Though they may have been answering the same questions, their answers are extraordinarily different from one another.

Our assignment was to watch some of the interviews and listen to what each individual person thoughts were. After a bit, we were to focus on a specific topic in which the people would talk about -- ranging from war to education to family to love. Somewhere in the abundance of topics, I decided to watch a film about happiness.

Happiness is very important to me, and I had always thought that my view on it was the same as everyone else's, or at least similar to others. But by watching the film, I had learned that that is definitely not the case. In the thirty minute film, it goes through dozens of interviews with people where they talked about what happiness means to them.

Many people would mention family. After a long, tiring day at work, they felt happy when they would come home and see their husband or wife cooking them a meal. Hearing their children tell them about their day at school or what they had learned that day.

Others mentioned that their happiest moments were when they were pregnant, watching their children grow up, getting married, and moments like that. Some said that happiness comes in the little things -- your health, your relationships, the clothes you wear, what food you eat, being able to make a child smile and laugh.

Somewhere in the beginning of the film, a man's words really stuck out to me. He talks about a discussion between a master and pupil. The pupil asked what is the definition of happiness. The master replied, "It is like a butterfly, which you try to catch. When you stop looking for it, when you're tired, it settles on your shoulder."

I somehow connected to this quote, but quickly thought back to one said not long before it. A woman says that "happiness is a daily quest, it doesn't just happen. You work at it, it is not given."

So, this got me thinking... What is happiness?

Everyone who spoke in the video, and every person on this earth, are going through a different life. We have all seen different perspectives and have gone through different hardships. What happiness is to one person could be different from another.

We may never have an exact definition or understanding of happiness, but we know what it is when it happens to us. Whether it is sheltered in small moments that happen or you work hard for it. Whether we feel it all the time or it happens every once in a while. Everyone has been touched with happiness and have different ideas of it.

What is happiness? That is up to you to define.