Finding Happiness

A couple of days ago was my Bday. Let's forget how old I turned, that would not be the point here. The point is one of the gifts I got: A book by Francois Lelord, which is perfect for the thoughts I had within the past 6 months. The tile: Hector or the way to find happiness (I translated it from the german,I am not sure whether the english title is this).
The author, a psychologist travels the world in irder to find real happiness or the way to find it. Obviously every one sees happiness in another way or through another experience, hence the author writes certain "lections" in his little notebook. This is the story in a nutshell.

I am not completely done with reading, but it made me think a lot. What IS happiness? All the things we surround ourselves with? A couple of days ago, I met a friend, who was not too fond of the fact that my on-line name was "Ms. Armani", because it would make me loose my own identity and identify myself with a Brand name. While telling that this was a nickname, I started thinking WHY it had become a nickname. It started at a time (around 5/ 6 years ago) when I was very unhappy in my life (at that time this particular friend did not know me yet), I felt lost,alone, did not know who I was. I am sure that every person has had a time like that. I liked the fact that some people realized who I was, even if it was through the designer label I was wearing. I know, this is very sad. But my point is, that at that exact time that was my happiness. When I look at it now, I notice how foolish it was.
So, happiness does not only depend on the location you live, your gender or age, it also depends on ALL your inner thoughts, on the experiences you have made etc.
I was dissapointed that my friend mentioned the whole story, and judged me so "heartlessly", but took it serious enough to change my screen name.