Students participated in a Happiness Test Wednesday, put on by Volunteer UCF as part of their Arts and Recreation Week.
The activity was inspired by Rainn Wilson’s YouTube channel Soul Pancake. More than 25 students participated in the event meant to determine how art can affect your happiness.
Paint, crayons and markers were used to represent the various things students credited with making them happy. Family, friends and animals topped the list for most students.
“You need to focus on what makes you happy,” junior health services administration major Marina Gibson said. “I feel that with finals, graduation, and things that need to be paid [for] people get so caught up in all of the hard things.
Events like this really helps students zone in on what does make them happy, and it helps them realize that sometimes you need to focus, take a step back, take two hours out for yourself.”
Students were given instructions to write down seven things that make them happy. They were then told to associate each item on the list with a color. Afterward there was a discussion about the different meanings that colors can have in life and what they meant to each person.
Senior psychology major Robert D. Williams addressed the group stating that his favorite color is blue and that for him it would represent music, so he would probably put that color in and around his head.
“I would say placement has a lot to do with it. Say for instance a student’s favorite thing could be food, so they could have certain colors on their stomach to represent that,” senior psychology major Robert D. Williams said.
With finals around the corner, the students welcomed the break in their day to relax and focus on what makes them happy.
To learn more about how to volunteer visit VUCF’s website http://osi.ucf.edu/vucf/
Originally published April 2, 2017