Finding Happiness in Tibet Story

Story title: Finding Happines in Tibet Story

   A bright young premed student from Harvard University journeyed to the mountains of Tibet during the summer following his sophomore year. There he met a monk who said to him, "Don't you see how you are poisoning your soul with your success-oriented way of life? Your idea of happiness is to stay up all night studying for an exam so you can get a better grade than you friend. Your idea of a happy marriage is not finding a woman who will make you whole, but winning the girl that everyone else wants. That's not how people are supposed to live. Life is not a competition. Give it up. Come join us in an atmosphere where we share, live in harmony, and love one another. Here you can find true happiness."
   The young man had completed four years at a competitive high school to get into Harvard and had worked hard to become one of the top premed students in his class at the university. He was ripe for the appeal of the Tibetan monk. He called his parents and told them that he would not be coming home. He was dropping out of school to live in a Buddhist monastery.
   Six months later, he wrote his parents: "Dear Mom and Dad, I know you weren't happy with the decision I made last summer, but I want to tell you that I am doing great. For the first time in my life, I am at peace. Here there is no competing. no hustling, no trying to get ahead of anyone else. Here we are all equal, and we all share. This way of life is so much in harmony with the inner essence of  my soul that in only six months I've become the number two disciple in the entire monastery, and I think I can become number one by June!"