How to find joy and make life a little nicer in a rough year

In a turbulent and troubled year, The Straits Times wants your submissions on what has brought you joy. Here's why.

- Lin Suling

Atdhe Trepca quit his job five years ago. The filmmaker has since spent his time moving across the US with his camera doing one thing: asking people whether they are happy.

And he's learnt a thing or two about happiness.

For one thing, when people are asked and given time to reflect, they tend to step back and notice not just what's troubling them, but also what's going right, he's said in media interviews over the past year.

His most interesting discovery? Happiness may be more attitudinal than circumstantial. To him, the key difference between happy and unhappy people lies in the ability to find small pockets of joy, even when luck runs out or life isn't going their way.

It's a stark finding in a world seemingly bereft of joy.

2025 thus far has been a turbulent, disruptive year - geopolitically, economically, and socially. Amid anxieties about the economy, trade, employment, AI, conflict and climate change, despair and retreat can become the norm when people feel a loss of power and autonomy.

It's a lot to handle. Every day, we are bombarded with misinformation, scams and worrying developments, from the ill effects of vaping to smartphone addiction.

Here in Singapore, a series of news stories has shone the spotlight on isolation, pain and desperation. The deaths of a father-daughter pair in Sengkang, discovered only after much time had passed. A family who lost an 11-year-old son to suicide, the leading cause of death among young people aged 10 to 29. A neighbourhood stabbing after an attempt to resolve differences over noise complaints.

The loss of precious lives adds perspective to our daily struggles and should give us pause to think about the state of society and our own existence. Is any problem so insurmountable that people choose the narrower path? How do we find an anchor for ourselves in these trying times?

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