by Kaitlyn Hamilton

Created on: November 07, 2008

Can money buy happiness and love?

Money can certainly buy happiness. I've seen it again and again with my own two eyes, but it can never buy love. There was a time when I would have argued that money can not buy happiness, but that was before I knew the real power of money. I've learned some very hard lessons in this life and possibly the hardest was learning the true value of money.

When I was a college student, just starting out on my own, I worked a full-time job, a part-time job, and went to school full-time. Unfortunately, those jobs were barely paying minimum wage and I needed money for rent, tuition, car maintenance, gasoline, electricity, food, and all the other bills that come along with independence and education. I constantly felt like I was drowning and didn't know how to find a way out, but eventually things got better for me. I worked hard and never gave up. It paid off.

Before I knew it, I had a nice home, a new car, and enough money to live what I felt was a comfortable life. I no longer had to worry about bills or where the money would come from for car repairs and all the little things that life throws at us. At that time, I would have argued that hard work and persistence brings happiness, but not money. That was before I knew the whole truth.

A few years ago, I had an eye opening experience. I went with a few close friends to Port au Prince, Haiti. One of my friends had found out about a particular village that was in serious need of help. There weren't many people there, but they needed a school and a church. They also needed money for food and basic clothing. I wasn't quite sure what I thought I would find when we got there, but I promise you I wasn't prepared for what was ahead. When the plane landed I didn't want to get off. One look out that window and I knew nothing could have prepared me for such desperate conditions. Before we left home I thought our trip would be a fun adventure. Sure, we would help a few people, do some hard work for a few days, then we would be on our merry way back home. What I saw on the other side of that airplane window had nothing to do with fun. It looked to me like hell on earth. Many of the houses we saw were nothing more than broken wooden crates nailed to rough tree branches that had been broken away from the tree. There were huge gaps between the broken boards and you could see through to the other side of the little shack. It reminded me a little of a treehouse my older brothers made when they were in

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