Intro: Most people believe that with money you're powerful. Money can buy you anything in this world is what many say. It can’t buy you happiness though. You can be the richest person in the world but if your not happy, are you truly powerful? Her is an essay by Stephen Bannis on “ Money is not the key to happiness.”

I believe that money can’t buy happiness, it’s the people in your life, your family, your friends, the people who really care about you, are the ones who truly give you happiness. I can relate to this belief because it greatly connects with my life. Many people would say “ I’m so lucky because I can get whatever I want and that I have life so easy. That they would love to trade places with me.” But what they don’t seem to understand is that I am an only child, and it is way easier for my parents to get me things because they don’t have to worry about spending more money to buy my brothers or sisters things also. So my parents get into this mindset that getting me all these items and gadgets is going to keep me happy, but it really doesn’t. I have to admit they do keep me occupied for a couple of days, but it’s just temporary. After a while, I get bored because I don’t have anyone to talk to and share the items with, and my parents mostly are always working so they don’t have that much time to do anything with me, and this process repeats every time I get something new. But when I am with someone that I can talk to and do things with, the whole world changes, I am full of joy and happiness even though some days I may look angry and annoyed, but on the inside, I am just glad that I am with people that I can talk to and spend time with. Most of the time I would rather be at school surrounded by friends that I can talk to and have fun with than at home surrounded by materialistic things that don’t really have any values. I am happiest when I’m around my family and friends because I value them more than I do money. I can guarantee you that if you were the richest person in the world, but you didn’t have any family or friends to share it with you, you would never be happy. To me, money is just a piece of paper that has no value to it, but it seems to control the world. People give money too much power. The world would honestly be a happier place if we didn’t care so much about money and cared more about family and friends. If someone didn’t have to get killed every day for a piece of paper. We are made to believe that if you don’t have that much money then your poor and useless and if you have a lot of money then your rich and successful. In today’s world, everyone cares a lot more about a person's status than their personality. I can guarantee you there are multiple celebrities that are just hiding behind a mask and showing out for the camera, but in reality, they are sad and dying on the inside. Honestly, if money wasn’t a thing, or everyone had the same amount of money and everyone was equal, everything would be better. We would see fewer people in jail for crimes they committed for money and more families together because they didn't have to worry about money breaking them apart.

Bio: Stephen Bannis is a 17 year old senior at the Good Hope Country Day School. He values family and friendship over everything.