My Summer Happiness Project Cost $26

Before my 40th birthday (in 2012), I read Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project book because I wanted my 40th decade to be focused on Happiness! If I was healthy enough to live a full life, I should be grateful and happy doing it. I turned to Gretchen's New York Times #1 Bestseller to put some framework around my personal Happiness Project and got working.

One thing that has always made me very happy is the beach and all that comes with it - collecting seashells, walking in the waves, waves, water, seagulls, sand. I love all those things. So part of living in Evanston and getting Happy meant spending as much time as possible at the beach! I aimed to be at the beach daily, day or night, even if for just a short walk. And most days, I come close to visiting the beach everyday!

Summer time beach visits are somewhat tricky as during certain hours a pass is needed to access the beach, which has become MY beach. Had I not read the Happiness Project, I might have allowed the need to pay to access the beach to make me mad or annoyed, but instead I chose to be grateful for the pass. See my logic below.

Thank you Gretchen Rubin and your great work! I now fully realize that "Happiness is choice, not the result of how life treats you."

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I bought my beach token before June 14 and it cost me $26.

So far this summer, I have gone to the beach at least 20 times. Over the entire summer, I will visit the beach at least 40 times putting my approximate cost per visit at around .65 cents.

What does the beach look like? See below. (And I walk to the beach, so there is no transportation cost.)

This beach makes me very happy, so does living in Evanston and so does buying a beach token and so does writing this blog and so does dark chocolate and so does eating fresh fruit from my garden....

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Thank you for reading my blog Evanston Newbie, a blog dedicated to helping you too fall in love with Evanston, just like I did. If you have any questions or need to get in touch with me about this blog, Evanston, or anything else you can email me at thelisadshow@gmail.com. Also feel free to send me announcements about upcoming Evanston events and I will promote them here!