“The Meaning of Life”
My writing foundation.
This is the essay which got me into The University of Maryland, College Park (…go Terps!)
I wrote it sometime in the Fall of 2008, and uncovered it nearly 5 years later.
It’s interesting to look at old work, and more importantly to share old work. I think it’s fascinating to see both the consistency and growth of my writing — and in my thought process — over the years.
This may be my earliest attempt at writing anything more than mediocre spoken word poems and borderline plagiarized high school history essays. This was written far before any aspirations of becoming a writer, or even truly a thinker. I’m not even sure what inspired this overly thoughtful application essay on a mind-numbingly cliche philosophy question.
I think that it is only fitting to start this “blog” off with this essay. For more reasons than I can express.
Without further ado…
What is the meaning of life?
This question has been contemplated, speculated, and cogitated since humans could philosophize. No other question is so simple, yet provides so much hope of a greater understanding of everything. The problem is as follows: finding the absolute, definite meaning of life is a fruitless task and such a musing is mere mental clutter. Indeed, on such a quest a philosopher might come upon deeper insight into themselves and society. The metaphorical path which people seem to follow, however, is a closed-circuit: metaphorical end lies atop the metaphorical beginning. Perhaps, then, humans should approach this question differently.
The efforts of a philosopher — veteran or green; professional or amateur — should not be invested in discovering how we, as humans, got here, but instead in determining how we should spend our time here. What should we do here? Why should we stay here? A philosopher’s mental energy should be spent pondering not what life means to the entire human population, but to him or herself individually.
We should all take some time to reflect and decide what it is that’s important to ourselves. Who else will we be forced to live with for our entire lives? Consider this: truly charitable people extract joy from helping others. Conversely, truly selfish people are primarily concerned with things which will benefit themselves. In an odd twist, they are the ones who have the courage to stand in the face of the general public ideal of generosity and show their true colors. In addition, selfish people appear to be genuinely happier than those who appease others simply to appease society. Although selfish people are certainly not to be lauded for their actions, neither should they be scorned. They should instead be treated with pity, for they are condemned to be looked down upon by the general population. It is by chance that a person who genuinely loves to help others is regarded positively by most societies.
We should seek what is significant to ourselves. This is essential to satisfaction in life. Everyone has the right to be selfish; the key is to not take such a statement and run, interpreting it to countenance any act of greed. The selfishness must be spiritual, not superficial. We must find what is truthfully and individually important to us and pursue such things with priority. That’s what this whole life thing is all about: being able to live with ourselves.
What is the meaning of life? Perhaps there is an answer to this age-old question. Perhaps it is one which is both universal and unique to every individual. Without doubt, much energy and time has been invested into this problem of problems, this inquiry of inquiries. However, the answer is truly very simple. When the intellectual dust settles, and the philosophical smoke clears, the true answer will finally emerge:
“The meaning of life is to find the meaning of your life.”