Happiness, fulfillment, meaning, purpose, enjoyment and joy are postures to circumstance, not products of it.
All those qualities we attribute to a good life, aren’t primarily dependent on where we start out in life, because what those qualities look like in context take shape in infinite ways.
In the same way that we say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so is fullness.
As each of our definitions of what makes life good are determined by the context with which we start in life.
Said another way:
Fullness of life is relative and unique to the individual.
Which is why individual definitions of happiness cannot be compared.
Will there be many people who share similar definitions (because they too, have come from similar contexts)? Of course.
Will many, many people fail to find fulfillment in life? Of course. (Regardless of which socio-economic class they are raised in.)
Our primary invitation in life, then, is to uncover what happiness looks like for us (with courageous curiosity and ruthless honesty within ourselves).
Our further invitation is then to share our field notes with those who share a similar vision for happiness so that others might find a fuller version of life, too.
We go astray when we judge others who have a different definition of happiness than we do.
This judgement often results in condemnation or futile-and-insulting attempts to convert them to a different definition by imposing our own origins, context, and experiences onto others.